Flowers on the Wall
by Meander Red
Summary: When one of Soifon's units that is gathering information in the living world needs to be replaced, the rather reclusive and tempermental 12th seat of the 12th division is the only option. But not everyone is glad to see her. Temp Hiatus due to glitch.
1. Prologue

Kurotsuchi Mayuri walked down the hallway of his division, sandals clicking angrily on the floor's stone tiles as he looked in past the open doors of the main laboratory, searching for Nemu. He had nearly passed the area reserved for data recording when he stopped suddenly, his attention totally fixed on what he saw seated at the nearest recording station. None of the devices had alerted him of Aizen's return to Soul Society, but somehow he was sitting there, the captain's haori a pale and shapeless form on the back of the chair as he sat, appearing to enter data into the computer, the set of his shoulders, the hair, even the movement to fix the earpiece of his glasses the same as it had been up until he had left Soul Society.

"You!" Mayuri shouted at him, not caring whether it was Aizen or an illusion, as his temper built, incensed by the thought that Aizen's arrogance would let him try to pass unnoticed in the Twelfth Division, right next to the very devices that were meant to detect the slightest hint of him or his reiatsu.

The typing figure jumped, turning quickly and going into a formal bow in one single fluid movement before they straightened to attention. _She_ straightened, Mayuri realized, recognizing the face of Warigari Suiren as she stood, allowing closer inspection of the garment on the chair. Enough so that it was clear that is was a lab coat and not a haori.

"Ai, teicho"

Mayuri searched his mind frantically, trying to think of some reason to give her for the interruption before remembering the new eyepatch he had been meaning to test for Kenpachi after he had found Nemu and given her orders for the division with the captain's meeting this afternoon. Fishing it out, he thrust the package into the girl's hands.

"Here. Take this to the Eleventh Division, and this time make sure that Zaraki-teicho fills out all of the paperwork for it before you leave."

"Ai, teicho," she answered, tucking her glasses into the case tucked in the front of her shihakusho's kosode, bowed once more and left.

Mayuri continue walking, deciding to take his search for Nemu to the office and the filing cabinets of division records that were located there.


	2. Chapter 1

_"Suiren, not again! I am going to have to transfer you out of the Twelfth soon if you keep insisting on getting into these fights!_

_She stared at her feet, her hands clasped firmly in front of her as she stood in front of her captain for the fifth time in the past two weeks alone. She was not even finished with the last punishment that had been put in place to keep her from her beloved kidou research yet. Not even halfway through the month in the brig that Hiyori -fuiteicho had ordered her to spend every free minute in, when she was not doing her own jobs as the twelfth seat of the division before that._

_"But, Urahara-teicho, he told me that -," she spluttered, her braids bobbing as she began to shake but Urahara was shaking his head and she stopped. It wouldn't do any good for her to explain. Her captain might understand her reasons for fighting, maybe even support her because of that, but he had received too many complaints from senior officers in other divisions since she had officially been assigned to her division a few months ago after finishing the last of her courses at the Academy. And even though he had only been the captain of the Twelfth for a few months, she knew that he was aware from Hiyori-fuiteicho if not the Captain Commander of how unlikely she was to want to leave the division that had become her home over the past few years, let alone hurt people like him or the two officers who had adopted her as if she were family almost from the minute that they had brought her here to test for placement into the Gotei 13 from practically right off the streets outside her mother's house in Rukongai just over five years ago._

_"I can guess what he said, Suiren. And he might well have deserved it. But you knew the orders after the incident last month where you ended up in the Fourth, that you were to stop the fight quit picking fights merely for that reason. Please stop this, Suiren. If you don't have at least one week free from any reports of fighting by the end of the month, I'm going to have to transfer you, whether I want to or not. And I can't guaranteed you won't be reevaluated again. Keep that in mind. In the mean time, I am going to have to go think of what punishment to assign you this time."_

"I do not think that you would have chosen this one, teicho, even if it had crossed your mind," Suiren murmured to herself as she walked through the gate to the Eleventh Division for the second time today with the research her captain had wanted her to deliver. At least this time, she had not been in the middle of a critical procedure in her latest experiment. She squared her shoulders back as she moved. Not out of fear. No, after heading through these gates for more than sixty years now, she made the gesture not to hide her own fear, but simply as a preparation for her body and the coming fight. And with her in the Eleventh Division, there was always someone looking for a fight. Being a kidou master from the Twelfth Division just increased her odds.

She was about five steps in when she felt eyes turning to look at her, trying to decide whether or not she was worth a fight. It did not take as long as it normally did for them to decide either, she noticed as a yell greeted her back after she had only taken two more steps forward. She continued walking, not even bothering to turn around. While she was not as busy as she normally was in the course of these errands, she did want to get back to recording the most recent data from her experiment before her captain decided to confiscate it and turn it into his own again. She increased her pace, looking for the flash of a captain's haori in the midst of all the black robes. She could see no sign as she continued walking and she looked in both directions, trying to decide which way would lead her to the captain. In that hesitating moment of distraction though, she heard a shout from behind her, carrying above the other voices.

"You bastard! Think you're too good for us? Come back here and fight!"

Annoyed, she flapped her hand backwards, as if to swat a fly, and released a bolt of kidou. It was a unique combination of techniques which seemed to work only for her, creating an odd web of black and white threads of light for a brief instant before it struck. Time enough for the idiot to get out of the way. And if he didn't, she was sure that particular kidou would leave him alive, if rather bruised for the next week. Sure enough, as she went to turn down a path that lead to the right, she heard a string of astonished shouts at the hole that had formed where the other shinigami had been only moments before. She did not get very far before a hand grasped the back of her collar, pulling her backwards. So much for the idea of avoiding a fight today. At least, she could try to keep this one short.

"What sort of bastard do you think you are? Fighting with kidou? Come on, if you want a fight, fight like a man!"

She turned, smiling at the look on the man's face when he realized that the messenger was a woman. It lasted a brief instant before her fist connected with his jawbone and he went flying back into the wall behind him.


	3. Chapter 2

"Shit, what the hell is all the paperwork for?" Kenpachi asked as he walked with Ikkaku and Yumichika out of the division office. This was the first time he had seen the two of them back since they had been in the living world, and it wasn't like Hitsugaya to let the two of them come back for merely a social call. Something which the files that Yumichika was carrying implied was most definitely not the case.

There was a sound like an explosion which drowned out whatever Ikkaku had been meaning to say and they both turned toward the direction it came from. After all, hearing explosions was not too out of place, not when you were stationed right next to the Twelfth Division. But this particular explosion had been too close for that. Which meant that it was inside the Eleventh Division, an area where those sort of explosions should not be coming from. They kept walking, now moving purposefully towards where the blast had come from. It was a short walk and a sharp, high voice from right by his ear let him see the edges of a kidou blast fading right as the figure facing him sent the larger man flying backwards with a strong right uppercut which knocked him back nearly forty feet. Kenpachi stepped to one side as Yachiru squealed with glee at the sight of the flying division member, letting Ikkaku and Yumichika to get themselves out of the way. They did so with reflexes built after years of this. The unranked who had just whizzed in between them to end up hurtling into a wall was hardly the first flying rookie that they'd encountered, and probably not the last. Ikkaku turned to face his captain, a look of sheer joy beginning to spread across his face.

"Teicho, can I deal with this one?" The tone of his voice was oddly reminiscent of a small child who had spotted a favorite toy or treat in a store window.

Kenpachi shrugged. "Knock yourself out. Let's see if this one's strong enough to have some fun with."

Yachiru began to cheer "Yeah! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Ikkaku walked forward to where the other fighter was still standing, turned to the side, taking off his glasses to polish them before he addressed them.

"Alright, what sort of sissy trick was that, you bastard, using kidou in a fight? If you want to fight someone, fight them like a man. Try fighting me and see if those tricks get you so far."

The person turned, and Kenpachi blinked for a second as he saw that the man he had seen fighting in profile was not a man at all, but a woman and any familiarity that he thought he had seen in the features flew out of his mind. The woman listened to Ikkaku and a small smile began to curve her lips then.

"Very well, then. First, let me make the delivery my captain ordered." she said, and walked up to Kenpachi with a small parcel and notepad in hand.

"Zaraki-teicho, will you please fill this out?" the woman asked as she handed him the package, deliberately planting herself in his path until he had finished signing the last line on the form. She thanked him, her tone still polite and cool as she walked back towards where Ikkaku was still standing waiting for a fight. A crease started to form between his eyebrows as he watched her give the customary bow, or what should have been a bow. Her hands were held wrong though, and Kenpachi's eyes widened as he realized just what her hands were busy doing and the crease along his forehead deepened, replacing the wide eyed look of respect almost immediately.

"What the hell does that girl think she is doing?"


	4. Chapter 3

_"Halt!"_

_"What? That last attack was good! Why are you-?"_

_"Shhh. Look up there, between the roof and the division wall. There's someone watching us."_

_She tried to move as quietly as she could to stay close against the wall, hoping that she would be able to scramble down from her hiding place unnoticed. It would only take her a step or two to walk back around the corner and lower herself down from the wall there. She had only taken half a step though when her sandal caught on the tile of the roof and sent her and the tile both skidding to the ground in a heap by both officers, their swords drawn and pointed at her before she landed. _

_"Suiren-chan, is that you?"_

_'She nodded, not raising her head until she heard the woman in front of her sigh and sheathe her sword. She looked up then at the dark haired woman crouched down in front of her, feeling a wave of heat rush to her cheeks._

_"Gomenesai,Miyako-dono, Kaein-dono," she whispered softly, hugging her knees to her chest tightly enough that she could see the red patch on her ankle where she had scraped it on the tile even in the moonlight._

_"Shh. I'm not mad at you for being here-,"_

_"Well, I am. Okay, maybe only a little annoyed,but that's mostly cause you're interrupting our practice," Shiba Kaein amended as he noticed Miyako glaring at him. Honestly, he didn't even sound annoyed, let alone angry, but rather tired and more than a little concerned."But, aren't you supposed to be in your new division at this time of night?I mean, Hikifune-teicho is going to send Hiyori looking for you if you don't go back soon."_

_Neither of them mentioned where she had been prior to her replacement in the Academy and her reassignment of quartering in the Twelfth. And she did not mention those past three weeks either._

_She nodded again, and moved her feet again. "But, Hiyori-fuiteicho said that she wanted me to stay out of her sight after – after I got back to the division today," she finished, bowing as well as she could while she internally cringed at the wavering edge her voice had taken on at the end. _

_"Suiren-chan, does this have to do with the fight at the Academy today?" Miyako-dono asked softly. _

_"Ai, Miyako-dono. Please, teach me to fight like you do!"_

_There was a look between both officers which the younger shinigami could not see in the dark from where she sat on the ground. She heard a sigh and a pair of hands that settled on her shoulders and carefully kept her head bowed, waiting to hear Miyako-dono's response._

_Or, she thought, what seemed more likely after everything else, her refusal._

_"Maybe, if you explain to me what happened with the fight today. Moreover, if I agree to help you with swordwork, I never want to hear anyone report that you pulled a sword when you lost your temper again either. Is that understood?"_

Suiren bowed, staying slightly bent as she unfastened her zanpakuto, carefully moving to set it aside with her glasses. Now was not the time for daydreams, she reminded herself firmly as she readied herself for the fight. And regardless of her promise, the only chance she had with the fight was to get him to fight hand to hand.

"What the-" Ikkaku began.

"You said you wanted to fight me like a man," she said, still holding the bundle in her hands. She fought not to smile, knowing how much her words must sound like deliberate baiting. She watched the other man glaring at her and knew he had taken the hook, the way that she had seen so many others do against her from the time she was growing up in Rukongai with her mother. The next part would be far easier, and she let a bit of the smile show as she continued talking.

"That means fighting hand to hand. A sword, or any weapon really, is as much of an equalizer as kidou is. It's just another tool to increase your strength." That part at least she knew hadn't been faked but merely her own personal philosophy. Which didn't stop her from using the other two or working to polish her skills with them. She was pleased to see the other officer removing his sword and setting it down to the side as she was doing without any extra goading which she normally had to prompt a swordsman with to have them attempt hand to hand against her. Not that her ability to fight with her zanpakuto was not at a level at least equal to that of anyone that was still alive in the classes that had been near hers. But years of overbalancing from fighting with a sword that had been nearly the same height as her had helped her sharpen her other skills until she was able to work through that weakness. An extra little edge that would let her hold on that little bit longer, she hoped.

His first attack came almost immediately as she came up from the bow. She dodged to the side, pulling her feet up with a jump kick as she blocked the punch, pleased to see the momentum forcing him back slightly. She fought the feeling back. There was no sense in getting cocky over such a small hit. It was a basic mistake that anyone who worked primarily with swords might make. It was not one that she could count on a second time. He grabbed at her ankle with the kick and she barely had time to pull it out of the way before he could grab a hold of her, flipping herself backwards to give herself the extra space she needed for another move. She breathed in, steadying herself as she landed, a sudden thought clicking in her head and she hoped that she had enough strength to pull it off. For the next few minutes, she managed to deliberately mislead his movements in a series of feinted punches and kicks, the textbook standard sort that any student might have been drilled in, blocking the brunt of the blows with her forearm in standard fashion. He moved again, and she kicked upward instead, twisting and rolling until she was almost flat against the ground, and then grabbing his ankle and throwing him. She heard him twist with a sickening crack that let her know he had tried to struggle against the hold she had caught him in as she sent him back towards the same wall that the other man she had hit had gone through a short while before, dodging his kick toward the side of her head as she did so. Not well enough though, she realized as it connected with her shoulder, tossing her back the other way. She tried to catch her balance as she skidded back, fighting off the ringing in her ears now as well. Three months before, that would have been an easy task after the sort of blow she had taken, maybe even as much as two months ago it would have been manageable. But now....

Now she half knelt, forcing herself to stand and face the man across from her as he stood, half crouched, all of his weight now on his left leg, his right behind him supporting is balance as well as one could manage with a broken leg. Still, for now, she still had one advantage, since he could not run and get full speed to attack her with. Even as she watched though, with almost astounding quickness, he flipped himself into the air, landing behind her, a maniacal grin on his face, in spite of the pain that his leg must be causing him, his movements quick enough she barely glimpsed the blow that laid her out.

Not for long apparently, she surmised. The division members had begun to move around just as she pulled herself to her feet and one of Yumichika was helping Ikkaku limp towards the medical unit as she finished standing and gathering her things. She noticed their captain staring towards where she stood, the beginnings of his infamously demonic smile beginning to crease his lips when a hell butterfly landed on his shoulder. Taking advantage of the opening, she left, pausing for a second to retie the ends of her headband around the loose hair at the back of her neck to pull it into a short bob before heading back to her division, hoping that her research unit was still in the same condition she had left it.


	5. Chapter 4

"Ah, you two are finally back with the files! What took so long?" Matsumoto asked cheerfully as Yumichika set the pile of folders in the middle of the floor for them to begin looking through.

"There was something in the division that needed dealt with once we finished finding all the files, that's all." Ikkaku said flatly. "Discipline problem. It will be a while before Soifon-teicho is back. Zaraki-teicho had just gotten the hell butterfly about the meeting when we left."

"Let's start going through these then," Renji said with a sigh, leaning against the wall as he picked up the topmost file and began flipping through it. The others followed suite, sitting on the floor or various boxes that had spilled over from Urahara's shop into the back room as well.

The others began flipping through the files with nearly the same enthusiasm. The Secret Mobile Corps unit that had been deployed to gather necessary information about the arrankar had been taken back to Soul Society by the medical unit which had responded the day before, and so far no search had brought up any suitable candidates to replace the three injured shinigami. These files were the last of the suitable ones that anyone in Soul Society had come up with that were qualified to even be considered for the mission outside of the Second Division itself, a rather formidable task in and of itself.

"All five of the ones I've seen so far are injured or are already assigned to help guard Soul Society," Matsumoto said, tossing a file carelessly to one side and stretching in annoyance. "I don't see why we can't at least do this at Inoue-san's. There is more room, and besides, she said that there were leftover banana leek udon in the refrigerator."

"Matsumoto," Hitsugaya warned tiredly as he continued flipping through the file he was looking at.

"What, teicho? Really, you're taking this too seriously."

Renji looked up from his fourth file. "We're doing this here cause you lost the spare key yesterday, remember? And Inoue-san isn't there to let us in. She went to school, remember. And since there haven't been any Hollows today, that's probably where Sado-kun and Kurosaki Ichigo are too."

"Oh yeah, that's right. She said she would pick one up on her way back from school today. But then where-"

"Before you even ask," Hitsugaya said, frowning at the folder he was going through, "Kuchiki Rukia went back to Soul Society. She volunteered to go look through the archives to see if there were any more files since Ukitake-teicho is in charge of that."

Matsumoto slumped back, only to straighten suddenly as she felt a foot press into the small of her back, a small squeak of protest escaping her throat as she did so.

"Yourichi-san! What was that for?" Matsmoto asked, rubbing the afflicted section of spine gingerly.

"Because you are sitting halfway in front of the door, Rangiku," Yourichi replied as she came in and settled on a box near the wall, reclining with the lazy catlike bonelessness that was almost second nature to her. "Be glad that the gate hasn't opened yet. Soifon is probably in a worse temper right now than I am. I just came back to see how things were going in here while Kisuke is busy making – no, I am not even going to guess what this latest gadget is supposed to be."

"What does it do?" Matsumoto asked curiously as she slid closer to the side of the doorpost.

"Currently, all that Tessai and him have been able to manage is to get it to explode. Twice. Which from the swearing and coughing afterwards, wasn't quite what they were hoping for. Any luck yet?"

"Nothing," Renji said, disgustedly throwing the last of his pile of folders against the wall.

Ikkaku, Yumichika, and Matsumoto all nodded at Renji's assessment of their progress.

"What about you, Hitsugaya? Still on the first file?" Yourichi teased, ignoring the glare she got in return.

"This doesn't look like any of the other files that have come through," he replied, holding up the thick stack of papers that were bound together carefully. "Honestly, the only thing that has been recorded here for twenty years look like kidou incantations and a code of some form. Each one is an odd series of numbers. From the looks of it, I would say that they are experiment results. But then, right here, there is the form right before it and the assignment of delivering messages."

Yourichi's normally laidback expression hardened slightly. Matsumoto frowned as well. While she normally did her best to avoid paperwork, she had done enough to know what the standard form was for it. And what her captain was describing was anything from usual.

"May I see the file for a second? I have an idea that I know what file this is." Yourichi said. Hitsugaya rubbed his eyes and temples in annoyance and handed the tomelike stack over to her with no complaint.

Yourichi carefully studied the folder, her eyes narrowing at points in extreme annoyance before she began flipping backwards frantically. "Come on, I know that you are in here somewhere. Ah, here it is."

Hitsugaya began reading the page that Yourichi had turned to. "It says here that she tested a little below vice-captain level with kendo, and is a kidou master and expert in hand to hand. So far, she is the only one who fits who is not currently listed as injured or assigned. But the discipline reports in her file-," Hitsugaya added reluctantly, clearly unsure of how well Soifon would respond to such a person. Or, Matsumoto thought, how well he would deal with them. Because anyone who was working with this intelligence mission would have to be able to work with the shinigami who were already working to protect Karakura town.

"You would be surprised. It isn't as bad as it looks," Yourichi said blankly from her place near the wall.

Renji looked up from where he sat. "The only other person I know with that much paperwork in their file is me."

Hitsugaya began to flip through the folder again. "Most of the incidents seem minor. And there are several copies of the psychological examination for entry into the Gotei 13. She passed every single time. But, if she is that difficult to work with--," The rest of the phrase went unspoken, and it was clear that Hitsugaya was reluctant to work with someone like this without more information. Finally, he shrugged. "It's something at least. Let Soifon-teicho look over the file, and if she agrees to work with her, then I will as well."

"Fair enough," Yourichi agreed, an almost predatory smile beginning to show on her face. An awkward silence began to creep up as the tension hung in the air, almost in response to Yourichi's unspoken challenge, broken only by the turning of pages as Ikkaku and Yumichika continued looking at the remaining files.

"Hey, it looks like there are two other cases here that might work. They scored alright on most of the stuff, and they both tested really high in their hand to hand too. Wonder how those two freaks managed that."

Ikkaku handed the folders over to Hitsugaya, and he looked at them. "These would work, if there was a higher ranked shinigami supervising. Let's see, what division these two are." He flipped the folder shut and looked carefully. "Twelfth division. Same research unit as well. Are there any more folders?"

"Just those, Hitsugaya-teicho," Yumichika said as he set the last of the files he had been sorting through down. "I wonder if one of the Twelfth division is the same as the messenger that we saw earlier."

"Yeah, there was something kind of familiar about her. Must be the same one who brought the last eye patch."

"Must have been," Yumichika agreed before adding almost wistfully, "she moved surprisingly beautifully though when she was fighting."

"Yeah, that one flip was something else. Hard not to notice she had a nice-,"

"Assuming that Rukia doesn't come back with anything else, how long do you think it will be before we hear from Soul Society. The captain's meetings aren't normally that long." Renji asked, absently staring out the window behind him.

"Really, Renji, and how would you know that?" Yourichi asked mischievously from her perch atop of the crates.

"Because I normally run into my captain walking back when I get out of the vice-captains meetings."

"You actually stay awake through those? But they're so boring!" Matsumoto exclaimed, receiving a rather exasperated look from both Renji and her captain.

"Matsumoto," Hitsugaya began, his voice beginning to take an angrier undertone to its normal annoyance. Whatever he was about to say though was interrupted though by the sudden influx of light through the door and a single hell butterfly passing through, shortly followed by Soifon.

"Did you find anything?"

"Three possible files," Hitsugaya replied. "These are the closest we could find."

The other captain took the files with a brusque nod and began to leaf through the pages. Yourichi looked at her as she did so, the other woman's face taking on a concerned cast noticing the drained expression of her former subordinate.

"The two members of the retrieval squadron that were injured?" she asked tentatively.

"They'll live," Soifon replied, her voice still the neutral, if hostile, tone that she always kept it. "However, Captain Commander made it quite clear that we don't have the time to wait until they recover to continue. And I cannot divide the rest of my division more than they already are."

She placed to of the folders to the side. "They have adequate skills. I suppose if necessary, they will have to do. I don't like needing to resort to this level of competence though." Before anyone could respond to that, she opened the third file and began looking through it the same way, stopping suddenly on a page near the front.

"Yourichi-sama, is this the same one that--?" The captain paused, her eyes wide as she looked at the other woman.

"It is the same person you remember, Soifon. It is your decision if you want her to work on this mission." Yourichi said easily, only the slightest tension in her voice carrying a warning that Matsumoto did not fully understand. "After all, it's your division members she is replacing, even if she is working with all of us."

Soifon straightened up slightly, a fierce sort of pride showing in her face in the form of a small tight smile as she answered Yourichi. "Then, yes, these three will work adequately as replacements. I will contact Soul Society and let Yamamoto-souteicho and Kurotsuchi-teicho know that the fifth research unit will be replacing the retrieval unit that I had sent.

Yourichi smiled while everyone else stared at the doorway dumbfoundedly, watching the Second division captain as she hurried to the room where the monitor was stored, their eyes wide with astonishment at her sudden acceptance of the decision.

Matsumoto looked over at Yourichi, her expression still half disbelief in spite of the curiosity that was beginning to show there. It was Renji that actually asked the question that was running through their minds as they remembered the look on Soifon's face when she had seen the files.

"Yourichi-san, what exactly does the fifth research unit do?"


	6. Chapter 5

_"But I told you already, I'm in charge of the fifth research unit, not the first. That is the research unit that my captain and vice-captain head. My unit works exclusively with research on how to combine technology and kidou and the experimental uses of these applications. I wouldn't have the access to work with hollows even if I hadn't been waiting to meet someone."_

_The Central 46 all looked down from their places at the daises surrounding the room._

_"Fortunately for you, Warigari Suiren, there are other witnesses who report seeing you outside the Thirteenth division at the time the attacks took place, including one from Kotetsu Kiyone who woke up during the night and saw you 'drawing with kidou' and one from Ukitake Jyuushiro, who says that you frequently practice your kendo in the evenings with members of his division. Still, there are reports and complaints about your teaching, including that of you using experimental kidou in your classes_

_"But, I-,"_

_"Enough," they thundered, loudly enough that she wasn't sure if it was many voices or only one. "There is no room for debate. This is not the first time that you've been brought before us, Warigari Suiren, for charges even more severe than this. You are being removed from your position as a teacher in the Academy. And if there is any evidence to show that you've lied about any of this, you will be arrested. Is that understood?"_

_She nodded solemnly and walked out of the chamber as soon as she was dismissed, worrying the sleeves of her robe a little as she did so, unable to shake one troubling thought from her head. One that she voiced out loud without thinking as she made her way slowly back to her division._

_"But why didn't you ever show up?"_

Suiren finished taking notes and looked up to notice Nemu walking towards her. She stood and bowed in greeting, waiting for her vice-captain's orders politely. Not that she had any intention of doing otherwise, she thought wryly. She had no quarrel with her vice-captain, and was relatively nonplussed by her captain and his experiments over the years, putting up with his foibles for as long as he would let her do her work in peace. She looked around the mostly empty unit office, her two subordinates moving quietly at their own research. That sort of overlooking which he expected to complete his research was a price she had out of necessity become more tolerant of recently.

"There is another assignment for you, Warigari-san," Nemu told her in the flat emotionless voice that she always had.

Suiren nodded grabbing her zanpakuto from where it had been resting against her chair and moving to fasten it at her obi again.

"Ai, fuiteicho," she added, her voice probably sounding weary. Her own currently ill health and the effects of the reiatsu buffering enhancement that she always took before going into the Eleventh combined with the amount of reiatsu she had used during the last fight in the Eleventh had leached away a lot of her strength and it would still take her the better part of the next quarter of an hour for her to be at her normal level again. Still, protesting would do no good and she moved to take the latest packet from her vice-captain when she realized that there was nothing there for her to take.

"Kurotsuchi-fuiteicho?" she asked uncertainly. In all the years that she had been used as a courier to the Eleventh, she could not remember a single time that she had not been sent with something, even if it was insignificant or unnecessary.

"This mission is not to the Eleventh division, Warigari-san," Nemu told her as if she had heard what Suiren was thinking. Not that she would put it past Mayuri to make such an alteration to his 'daughter', but she was fairly certain that it had not been one he had made since this morning.

"It was a direct request from two captains, one which Kurotsuchi-teicho approved."

Suiren felt her heart suddenly racing, more hopeful she felt than she had been in a long time. That surge of hope died as soon as she heard Nemu's next words.

"I will help you finish preparing to leave, since Akon agreed to take my place helping with our captain's latest experiment. You and the rest of your current unit are being deployed to the living world to help with the Special Mobile Corps operation. You have half an hour to get ready." Nemu turned and walked away, presumably to tell Nodaika and Muhicchi about their deployment

"Ai, fuiteicho," Suiren murmured half to herself as she began to search through her desk for her case of gigaikon.


	7. Chapter 6

Okay, author's drivel, but awww! Sorry, love Urahara and Yourichi so writing this scene was a lot of fun. Hope you like it. And review. Reviewing is good.

"Well, they should be here in a few minutes now," Yourichi said with a sigh, keeping her careful footing on the ladder as she craned her head over to see Urahara sitting, turned half away from her as she fiddled with her project. "Kisuke, what are you doing?"

"Still trying to get this to work," he muttered as he turned the handle of the forlorn looking device that he had been fighting with all afternoon. He dropped a penny into the chute at the top and turned it again, and it slid through, shuddering slightly as it emerged with a small trembling reiatsu that dissipated almost immediately, replaced by a wisp of steam puffed out by the machine with an odd belching noise.

"Well, it almost works," he admitted sheepishly as he walked over and leaned against one of the smaller boulders that littered his basement before slumping to the ground.

Yourichi jumped down from the ladder and padded over to stand behind him, until she was supporting her weight fully on her torso and the crossed arms that she had settled on the rock, her head tilted to the side as she rested it on top of her arms.

"Give it a rest for a few minutes. Today hasn't been easy for any of us."

He tilted his head back and reached up, grabbing one of her hands as she let it dangle over the front of the rock face, letting his hat slide back a little as he did so.

"Talk, Kisuke. You are either meddling or thinking too much and that is not always a good thing," she hazarded and she watched his face lose a little of the guardedness and the rougher edge it had gained over the years, leaving the expression that appeared underneath one of the most genuine ones she could remember seeing in almost a century. And one of the most worried.

"What, me an innocent shopkeeper do something like that?" he replied impishly and then sighed and turned serious again. "Just a lot of old memories coming to the surface working on recreating this reiatsu infuser from the model in Soul Society. Wondering what happened to the shinigami who invented it, that's all."

"Your favorite little basketcase?" she quipped, remembering the pet name he had referred to her by privately when no one else could hear. Not even the subordinate he was thinking of. Maybe he cared if she heard him say that more than anyone else.

"Yeah," he said, tossing his hat in the air and catching it as he mused before sitting up and lodging it firmly on his head.

"Dammit Yourichi, she was a sane as I am!"

"It would not take much to argue that point right now," she replied a bit archly "Didn't we have this conversation before? Come on, Kisuke. I agreed with you then, and I agree with you now. You requested her transfer, that was the most you could do."

"And got myself exiled rather promptly afterwards."

"Kisuke, she-,"

He waved a hand half absentmindedly and stood up, sauntering toward the ladder as he went. "I know, I know. She's probably dead by now. If Ichimaru, Aizen, or Mayuri haven't killed her, or found a reason for the Central 46 to execute her given how hard they were trying, it's been over a hundred years. She might be gone even if she was safe. No use worrying over it now. We should probably head up and meet our visitors before Soifon loses patience with Kurosaki Ichigo and decides killing him is the only way to keep him from interfering with the mission." He paused halfway up the ladder and stopped, turning back to look at her. " How did you manage to come down without her following you anyway, Yourichi-san?"

"She was busy arguing with Kurosaki Ichigo," Yourichi replied with a grin, the answering grin she got in return making her feel a little better about Kisuke's mood until they got toward the top of the ladder. The sound of raised voices was coming from inside the shop.

The two of them flashstepped to the top of the ladder, Yourichi fighting to slow down enough so that she wouldn't barrel directly into Kisuke's back.

"Soifon-teicho, please don't kill him! I need that body back!" Ichigo exclaimed as the captain moved threateningly towards his gigai, which unfortunately was housed in Ichigo's actual body.

"We don't have time for this right now," she said with a rather reluctant sounding sigh, returning her sheathed sword to the small of her back as she turned towards where Urahara and Yourichi were,allowing Renji and Rukia to release Ichigo's struggling shinigami form and giving Orihime and Sado a chance to step away from the wall where they had all but plastered themselves during the argument.

"Baka," Hitsugaya snorted derisively at the wall where Kon stood, still rubbing his neck, checking his monitor as Ikkaku and Yumichika came through the window from their turn as the watch for more hollows and arrankar, followed by a slightly less graceful entrance from Matsumoto, who was glaring unrepentantly at the back of Yumichika's head as she recaught her footing. No doubt for some comment that Yourichi was fairly certain she wanted to know about as she did whatever idiotic suggestion Kon had made to Soifon.

A tiny dark haired figure crept out of the back room and curtseyed shyly before she very quietly began to speak, her voice almost lost in the others' complaints and mutterings.

"Mister Urahara, Yourichi-san?"

"Yes, Ururu?" Kisuke asked, looking at her.

The two shinigami men and a lady are here and Mister Tessai said to come and get you."

"Jinta! Go help Ururu sweep out front!" he yelled back, making sure that there could be no excuse that his other assistant had not heard him at least."We'll be there, Ururu," he assured her as he looked back at the rest of the room. "Once we tell the others."


	8. Chapter 7

_The she could feel the sharp pain that coursed up through her abdomen and into where her arms and legs were strapped to the surgical table where she lay, half covered with a sheet, the bandaged wound at the base of her neck burning, although she was unsure whether it was the pain or the drugs that they had used when the kidou bindings they had secured were too weak to prevent her from trying to escape. The air felt cool against the back of her head without her familiar braids there. She didn't remember feeling them cutting her hair, and for some reason that bothered her. She struggled to force her eyes open at the sound of footsteps approaching again, and she heard the lock click shut in front of her as someone bent down and began to undo the bindings along the side of the table. _

_"Good, you're still alive,"_

_The laboratory where she was was dark and she squinted painfully to see the figure in front of her even though without being able to see the familiar horned silhouette she was Akon._

_"Akon, what are you doing?"_

_"The ryouka that was fighting our captain injured him, badly enough that he needed to revert to plasmoid form. It will be a few days until he is healed enough for him to reform again. The Quincy and the girl both escaped for now. I do not expect them to remain alive much longer though."_

_He jerked the IV which had been feeding her and keeping her in the half drugged state for the past week out of her hand, and she hissed with the sudden sharp pain that ran up her arm as the needle was yanked out._

_"Why, Akon? You used to be my friend."_

_"Inconclusive words like friendship and emotion. Bah! There is no need for anymore samples from you, and your kidou research is still something which no one else has been able to duplicate. Once they do, you and your unit will be obsolete. And if I do not release you, there will be nothing left for me to experiment on when that happens. I brought clothes for you. I have sent for what is left of your unit to help you get dressed and get back to your area of the laboratory. It appears that area was not as damaged by the fighting, so your data should let you pick up where you left off._

_"My unit! What happened to-?"_

_"I suppose that I should tell you, since I doubt you will leave me alone about it otherwise. One of them died in the attempts to make the bombs. Six more were successful and if it hadn't been for the Eleventh division's interference, their deaths would have at least allowed us to have captured the female ryouka. There were four more that were successfully detonated. Unfortunately, due to their body modifications, they somehow survived. One of the medical unit that came to deal with the injured shinigami in the Eleventh noticed and took four of them there. It will be at least two months before they recover, and after assessing the mental damage to the one, he will likely be forced to withdraw from the Gotei 13. The other two have been here almost the whole time, since teicho needed someone else to help with some of the experiments he wished to do. They seemed most insistent on following your orders not to volunteer. Disgustingly so, really. Having them arrested would have been pointless. So your failed ruse and attempts to protect them were for nothing."_

_Akon set the clothes next to her bed and moved to leave. "I really do not understand why you did not simply try to get rid of such trash when you had the chance. They will never be strong enough to be anything but expendable."_

_"They were my unit," she whispered hoarsely, the old scars on the inside of her throat feeling hoarse after not using them for so long._

_He opened the door and moved to leave, allowing Nodaika and Muhicchi to come into the room._

_"One last thing," Akon said as he shut the door. "If I were you, I wouldn't try to do any healing kidou on those wounds. Anything above a midlevel incantation will be fatal almost instantly. Even the lowest level will be very painful, although I imagine that much will be necessary to keep the incisions from becoming infected. Please keep that in mind. Now, get her out of here."_

"You heard Mister Urahara and Mister Tessai, Jinta. We're supposed to go outside and sweep."

"Alright, Ururu. Geez," the red haired boy muttered, roughly pulling at the little girl's pigtails as he went past, pushing through the shinigami who were coming into the room.

Suiren fought not to sigh with relief that the girl and the others had not heard Tessai's exclamation at seeing her. There was no sign left on the tall man's rather stony face she noticed as she bowed politely and stood at attention, waiting for orders, Nodaika and Muhicchi hurrying to copy her actions as both captains entered, their white haoris automatically catching her eye.

"Fifth Research Unit of the Twelfth Division reporting," she said, her voice as polite as she could make it, watching as everyone continued to move to fit into the narrow space.

She heard a gasp from one of the other shinigami who had just entered through the doorway where the gate had been moments before and looked up in time to hear a chorus of voices all beginning to shout at once from three of the arrivals, the expressions of the others all mercifully blank or confused.

"Y-you! You're alive!" The shout from one of the three shocked shinigami was still breathy and uncertain, but loud enough that she was surprised that the girl and boy who worked in the shop had not come back in.

Suiren rolled her eyes and breathed deeply. She knew from the reports that Rangiku would be here, and that she would need to work with her for as long as this mission lasted. Somehow it had seemed a much more realistic option on paper

"Obviously, since you requested me to come here with my subordinates this morning. I'm sorry to disappoint you about that, Matsumoto-fuiteicho. Kurotsuchi-fuiteicho explained that we needed to fill in for a mission. May I ask for specifics so that Nodaika-kun and Muhicchi-kun and myself know what we are doing?"

"Suiren-chan, I-,"

"Never mind, I'm sure it doesn't matter. The sooner I finish here, the sooner you can get rid of me." She ignored the vice-captain's squeak of protest, the indifferent mask she had perfected over the years to disguise her thoughts and falling back into place out of habit. She continued talking her eyes carefully focused on both captains, taking care to keep her mannerisms like those she would use with Kurotsuchi-fuiteicho. "What do you need us to do?"

"Before anything else can the two of you work together on this assignment?" Hitsugaya asked looking first at Matsumoto and then and then at Suiren.

Soifon nodded. "In order to gather the information, your unit will need to be able to work with the unit already in the living world. If they cannot you will be sent back to Soul Society until the mission is over and whatever punishment you are given for interfering is carried out. That applies to both of you. Now will there be any problems?" The threat in her words resonated through her voice as she spoke. A glance at Hitsugaya quickly confirmed that while he might be as unhappy about the decision as his vice-captain, he would follow this through, even if it did mean having them both arrested. She could feel Nodaika and Muhicchi looking at her, waiting for her response. If she had

"No, Soifon-teicho," Suiren answered promptly. The last thing she needed was to get the rest of her unit killed because she couldn't hold her temper. She looked at Rangiku-san, her eyes already going cold and unflinching, at complete odds with her easygoing appearance. Maybe she was easygoing by nature, Suiren admitted to herself a little reluctantly. Being around her seemed to bring out the worst in people. Like now, when it felt like the whole room was holding its breath on Matsumoto's response.

Finally, she bowed her head and the words came, slowly as if someone was pulling them out but they came.

"I can work with her. That does not mean that there is no problem though,"

"That's enough, Matsumoto."

"But she-,"

"I said that is enough, Matsumoto."

Suiren felt the retort she had been biting back die on her lips as she looked up to see who had just spoken and bowed her own head, a sudden wave of remorse coloring her cheeks.

"What the hell is wrong with you people? Why are you all just standing here like that? Who are these people?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo," Hitsugaya began, breaking off his sentence in disgust and shaking his head.

"For once, Hitsugaya-teicho, Ichigo might have a point," Rukia conceded. "He can hardly be expected to know who they are. And since Inoue-san and Yasatorou-kun have been helping us, they have the right to know as well.

"Very well, then. She looked at Nodaika and he bowed solemnly.

"I am Takimoko Nodaika, Twelfth division, Fifth research unit."

She caught Muhicchi glance at both her and Nodaika surreptitiously before bowing himself. "Subutaiki Muhicchi, Twelfth division, Fifth research unit."

Suiren bowed to introduce herself when a voice from the doorway replied, "Oh, I think we can manage this one."

She looked up and saw Yourichi standing with arms akimbo leaning casually against the doorframe.

"Warigari Suiren, twelfth seat, Twelfth division, head of the Fifth research unit of the Technological Research Bureau. I take it I can presume the transfer never went through, Suiren-chan?"

The voice was softer, far far quieter than it had been when he had snapped the order to Rangiku-san earlier but it was still the same familiar voice she had thought she had heard.

"Ai, Urahara-t-t-t-san."


	9. Chapter 8

"Ah, that's what I get for running a shop. An innocent shopkeeper like me has customers popping in and out at the most inconvenient times," Urahara said, waving his fan, his relaxed pose giving the impression that he was simply commenting casually. The effect was ruined only by his eyes, shadowed by the brim of his floppy green and white bucket hat and the slight tap of his foot as he spoke.

Orihime's mouth creased in a slight frown, her eyebrows nearly touching as she watched the scene in front of her. It was unlike the normally laid back shopkeeper who had helped her and Sado-kun and Ishida-kun become strong enough to help Kurosaki-kun rescue Kuchiki-san. She looked, carefully not turning her head, at where Renji and Rukia both were standing on the other side of Kurosaki Ichigo. The vice-captain's expression was completely unreadable, but she had seen the expression that Rukia was wearing when she had begun to pull away from them, trying to protect them and keep them from following her back to Soul Society. She had hated seeing that look, and still hated it because of how clearly it showed that one of her friends was hurting. Almost as if her thought had triggered it, Matsumoto turned slightly, just enough that Orihime could get a glimpse of the side of her profile as she talked with Urahara and both of the shinigami captains. Enough that she could see the painful anger that was still barely contained towards the darker shinigami who still stood across from her even as the Soifon began to veer the conversation towards the details of the mission and what needed to be done. A lot of the mission seemed to hinge on the ability of the three new shinigami to be strong enough working both together and separately with the arrankar. None of the three seemed to doubt their own abilities and the dark look that Matsumoto was wearing began to lighten until, while certainly more tired and cynical, it was almost the face that Orihime had gotten used to seeing with the normally gregarious woman who she had begun to like since she had moved in a month or so before.

"Shouldn't we test their abilities to see if they are as strong enough?"

It might have been the most reasonable thing that Matsumoto had said since the other woman's arrival. Urahara-san gave Ichigo all sort of tests when he was training him, and so had the other people who she had seen training Ichigo when he had been missing for so long. For that matter, Yourichi had insisted on training both Sado-kun and her when they had gone to rescue Rukia, and Soul Society had given her permission to go there with Kuchiki Rukia to continue training, so that she would be strong enough to fight with her ability. But the brown haired shinigami woman began to laugh, a soft almost deep chuckle that had a sharp bitterness, as soon as she said that. Although there was something about it that made it hard to tell what it was she was laughing it, whether it was Matsumoto or herself or something about what was said.

"Very well, feel free then. Test us all you want. Why not make sure everyone is captain strength and not just vice-captain strength while you're at it. That should leave no doubt, now should it?" The statement was a challenge, a very clear one, and there was a sort of smugness and arrogance to it which made Orihime wonder if some of Tatsuki's defensive nature was beginning to wear off on her as she felt her back stiffening and hands clenching a little, even though she wasn't quite sure why. The other shinigami hadn't sounded threatening or arrogant, only matter-of-fact, as if she were sure enough that her unit would pass any test without a problem.

Maybe she could too, Orihime thought, suddenly realizing just how unlike her it was to be this angry over something so small. Maybe it was how sure she sounded, so much like Kuchiki-san and Rangiku-san who sounded so much more confident than her. It was more like Tatsuki or Ichigo. Ichigo caught her eye from where he was standing, listening to the shinigami deciding that Ikkaku should be the one to test the shorter of the two Fifth Unit subordinates, a thin man with shortly cropped hair that was a soft gold color that somehow seemed to be far lighter in streaks than either Urahara-san's or Hitsugaya-teicho's. She had thought that Ichigo would be angry, considering how much that he hated bullies like the sort who had used to pick on her before Tatsuki had decided to defend her, the ones who tormented him for his orange hair. And that meant hating the sort of bragging the other woman had just done as much as he hated them. He looked relaxed though, maybe even impressed as he stood, completely at ease while he leaned against the wall, listening while Abarai-fuiteicho volunteered to fight the other man, who was quite nearly as dark as Yourichi-san, except for the reddish purple mark which ran in a hook shape from the center of his forehead to under his left eye. If Ichigo wasn't angry at her for, then maybe she actually was okay. But even as Orihime tried to reassure herself thinking that, her head swam with confused images trying to reconcile how Ichigo's calmness with how Rangiku-san and her odd behavior, but she could not even begin to picture what the more petite shinigami could have done to cause such a scene. And, Inoue realized with a start, she did not want to know either. It was hard enough to see Matsumoto this upset not knowing what had caused this.

"Well, it seems that all that is left is to decide who tests...her." Matsumoto said with a sigh. Her voice was still more snippy than it normally was, but she did appear to be trying to be professional about this, for her captain's sake and not her own.

Soifon shook her head firmly. "You know Suzumebachi is not the sort of zanpakuto with a release appropriate for me to fight anyone except an enemy with."

Orihime had never seen the captain's sword released, but the other shinigami apparently felt the same way about the weapon that Soifon did, and it was quite clear that Soifon would not be the one to test her.

Ichigo moved to open his mouth and Renji interrupted before he even had the first word out.

"No, Kurosaki. It has to be someone who has been tested in fighting for that level of mastery. Not the captain's test, but they would pass that part of the test. You aren't officially from Soul Society, so you can't." Ichigo grumbled a bit, but he resettled a little more sullenly in his corner.

Hitsugaya breathed in, "If I do not release bankai, I should be able to test her strength, since there is no one else who can."

"Really, Hitsugaya-teicho. I think that I could manage under the same conditions."

Urahara-san sounded like he might have been teasing, but one look at his face dismissed that idea. He was deadly serious. He glanced towards where Matsumoto stood. "I take it that her testing against Yourichi-san and myself is acceptable, isn't it Matsumoto-fuiteicho?"

The vice captain tilted her head to the side, not listening to the disbelieving gasps at the thought of anyone standing against Urahara and Yourichi fighting in tandem. She nodded and extended her hand then in the western gesture of acceptance.

"Fair enough. Should we head down to the basement then?"

"Not yet,"

The head of the Fifth unit looked at her subordinates severely. "Nodaikka, Muhicchi, do you want me to see your training?"

The shorter one, who she had called Muhicchi reached out and began to pat her head the way you would a small child or a dog.

"And risk fighting under par while you are watching, senpai? We've been around you long enough to know just how much of a cold hearted bitch you really are. I would fall on my sword first."

In spite of the teasing gestures and the overdramatized patronizing in the other man's voice, there was a wistful note that was too serious to ignore. Almost as if the joke was that everything that he said was true. If the officer heard it though, she seemed to ignore it as she smiled at the man patting her head, nodding to him and his friend.

"Of course, I expected no less. I trust that you will stay alive and send someone up here for me when it is time for my testing then?"

They both nodded and she turned to speak with the other captains, as if nothing was wrong, as if the beaten expression on their faces were so habitual as to be familiar. Strong or not, shinigami or not, that was something that Orihime knew she couldn't allow. Even if she could not stop it, she would not let anyone make others as weak as she had once been. As weak as she still was compared with the others.

"What did you do to your people?" she shouted, angry at seeing these two men who clearly adored her acting like kicked puppies.

"On second thought, I will wait on the roof."

The woman was gone. Before Orihime could say anything, she was gone, the window shut behind her.

The look on Urahara's face when she turned was almost pained, as if she had hurt him by yelling at the girl, before he turned and went into the back room of the shop.

"I think it is time we get started. We only have until dark before the arrankar get here." Soifon said, with a pointed glance towards the entrance to the basement.

They went down, Yourichi following behind Orihime, everyone staying quiet as they did so, only the quiet voice of Orihime's own mind chiding her for her words. Even if she did not understand what it was about the woman on the roof that seemed to hurt everyone around her.


	10. Chapter 9

_She was running down the halls of the Spiritual Arts Academy, or "The Academy" as most of the students here thought of it as, pulling the sleeves of her shihakusho on over top of the red and white uniform, amid the chatter of other students. No one looked amiss at this anymore like they had when she had first been enrolled in classes, but the few students who noticed her pulling her division uniform on as she ran merely greeted her with teasing comments about her lateness._

_And tonight, she was very, _very_ late.__She knew that her captain would be upset when she came back. Not angry. That wasn't like Ukitake-teicho. But he would be very worried about how late her lessons had run tonight. Although, to be honest, it was not her fault that her extra kendo practices ran so late. She had tried as hard as she could, but it was hard for her to mimic the movements that the teachers and other students did with the wooden practice swords. Quite probably because anything longer than the standard katana length swords would throw her off balance. And when they used any of the steel or edged weapons, they had to be shorter yet to make up for the difference in weight. It had been her fault that she had decided to stay and listen to Rangiku-san as she had begun to chatter easily. She had really begun to like the friendly girl who seemed to enjoy making people laugh with the odd combination of half-feigned ditziness and sharp-tongued humor. Lately, it seemed that same friendliness had begun to get her in trouble with some of the students that had been born in Seretei and the lower numbered districts of Rukongai, people who thought that the only souls who should become shinigami were the ones who had the purest blood. An idea which they supported by the sheer number of people who came from those districts to the Academy, versus the handful who came from any district numbered above 30 in any given year. An attitude which had lead her to be more comfortable around the two 'street brats' in their year than she was around any of her other classmates. Part of it was Rangiku being so outgoing, part of it was the fact that the other student who had entered with her was so easygoing, in spite of being so far ahead of Suiren in every field except kidou. Whatever it was, she felt like she might be beginning to trust these students, beginning to have friends again for the first time since she had come here. The thought made her smile briefly, and she nearly ran past the staircase she needed to take, forcing herself to focus as she doubled back, hurrying as she could towards the entrance._

_It was beginning to get dark, and in the empty hall, there were no lamps lit for unexpected visitors, or students who were this tardy. By this time everyone else, even Rangiku, had probably headed back to the dormitories for the evening meal. The sound of a girl crying stopped her though. She was already late enough as it was, and teicho would understand her stopping to help. She moved toward the darkening alcove right off the hall, just within the entrance. It wasn't Rangiku there though, but a smaller girl, one who was only a little taller than she was herself, black hair trailing loosely over the battered and tear stained face._

_"Please, stop. I was just trying to help my vice-captain by delivering a message."_

_The words stunned her. This wasn't even another student, but a full shinigami who was being attacked. She wondered if she could get to the dormitories to find someone else who could help briefly before she heard the soft, half-drawled laugh followed by a familiar voice._

_"Now, now, Miss Shinigami, I don't think that no one'd be believing ya. Ya know that no students would be round these parts at this time, and it ain't my fault ya did somethin' so stupid as to attack me so close to the door and all."_

_Suiren felt as if someone had hit her. She knew that voice, had heard him teasing her and Ran both a few hours before. A bit of light from the moon glittered through the window, catching on his silver hair, and any doubt she had about who was hurting the girl broke apart in a sudden painful wave._

_Ichimaru Gin._

_Not the offhanded joker who she had been thinking of, but someone completely different. He was so cold, so meticulous in spite of the smirk which still was creasing his face, his full intelligence peering through his half shut eyes._

_She hadn't been aware that she had even gasped or stepped back until she saw him turn to where she was standing in the doorway._

_It was too late to pretend she hadn't seen, too late to pretend she didn't know what he had done. She stood her ground, staring at him. He almost relaxed when he saw her, but none of the warmth that she was used to from him was there as he did so. _

_"Well, Suiren. My, my. Forgot tonight was when ya normally stay a bit late. Ya aren't gonna go runnin' off to Rangiku 'bout this, now are ya?"_

_"If you leave her alone, maybe I won't," she agreed hesitantly. She wanted to believe that Gin would not actually hurt her, but she could see the dark edge of blood along the blade of his sword. At least if she agreed, there was a chance that someone might survive. Although, with how badly the young shinigami girl seemed to be hurt, she was not sure that she would be able to do anything in time. _

_She didn't see Gin use his shunpo to move towards her. She had not yet gotten the hang of anything beyond the basic steps, and could barely cross more than a yard or two in one step most days. As it was, she was barely able to focus on anything other than the sudden feel of the blade against her neck as he stood behind her. And she hadn't even seen him move._

_"Ya know, Suiren, I thought ya'd be brighter than that. But, ya know what, maybe yer right. Be a shame to kill ya with how bad Ran is gonna be bound to take it. So, ya don't say a word to her, and maybe I'll let ya be takin' little Miss Shinigami back. After all, she is hurt pretty bad after a nasty fall like that, ain't she."_

_She shut her eyes and thought about what this meant. He wouldn't hurt Rangiku-san. Even like this, he wouldn't. She clung to the thought, hoping it would be enough. The other girl would bleed to death if she didn't get her out of there soon. She didn't even think as she whispered "Yes."_

_He left them there, her legs shaking as she bent down to check the other girl. Her pulse was still steady, and her uniform seemed to have taken most of the blood. It was almost as if Gin had known just how to hurt her without leaving enough evidence to trace to him. She shut her eyes and pulled a strong coil of healing kidou to her hands releasing it as she felt the other girl beginning to regain consciousness._

_With her black hair and glasses, the other girl looked like might have been half a year older than she was tops, or would if things followed the standards that the souls who arrived here from the living world seemed to expect._

_"You fell and got hurt pretty badly," she explained looking at the frightened expression in the serious blue eyes staring at her. "I'm Warigari Suiren."_

_"Ise Nanao,Eighth division" the other girl managed to get out, taking the arm that she offered to pull herself to her feet. The healing kidou had worked better than she had thought. There was no sign that the girl had done anything other than fall and hit her head. Still, after what Gin had done, she was taking no chances. She walked with her back to her division, hoping that the others in the Thirteenth weren't too worried yet. Nanao ran as soon as she saw her frightened looking vice-captain in sight and Yadomaru-fuiteicho scooped up the girl, listening to half sobbed explanations of how she had been saved after the fall and pleading that she would not be in too much trouble for being late. Somehow, in the course of Nanao's explaining, she had found herself bustled in by the division's vice-captain and captain towards a warm hall smelling of food, while Nanao chattered. She saw the hell butterfly being sent to her captain to explain where she was before she even had a chance to protest, and relief sank in, making the last hour or so seem like a dream. At least her captain would not worry about her here._

_By the time Ukitake-teicho carried her, half asleep, from the Eighth a few hours later, she felt that Nanao might have become one of the people she considered friends._

_Which, she realized as soon as she met the cold hurt look in Rangiku-san's eyes the next day, might be a good thing, since it appeared the shinigami girl was the only friend she had left._

Suiren shook her head, thinking how little some things had changed since then. It was quite clear how much Matsumoto still hated her after all of these years. That was no great surprise, given how much care Ichimaru had put into making sure that the other woman would never think of believing a word that Suiren had to say. It seemed that some things never would change.

She heard the sound of the door opening and the light sound of shoes scraping gently against the rungs of the ladder, and a sweet feminine voice cursing as her feet slipped in response. It appeared that one of the other constants in Suiren's life had decided to try to come and reason with her. Her suspicions were confirmed when a second later, Rukia's head appeared above the terra cotta tiles, and she quickly scrambled up to where Suiren was sitting. No, not Rukia anymore, but Kuchiki Rukia, she amended to herself as she began to draw the character for water in the blue light kidou that hovered around her hand. Rukia, who would not be here if any of the captains who knew about just how strict the limits that the Central 46 had confined her to were. There was part of Suiren that wondered if the girl had come up to check on her merely because she was a link to Kaein-dono and Miyako-dono, but she brushed it aside. Even if that was the case, Rukia was one of the few people left in Soul Society who cared enough to worry about her.

"Warigari-sensei?" Rukia asked uncertainly, watching in fascination as Suiren continued the careful strokes of her calligraphy.

"It is better for me to be up here, Rukia-san. It would not do for me to get a vice-captain sent back to Soul Society because I could not keep my temper."

"But how can you let her talk about you like that?" Rukia asked, obviously angry on her behalf after the scene downstairs. It was touching, and there was a chance that Rukia would believe the truth. And there was an even greater risk of her being in trouble or hurt if Kuchiki-teicho or Ukitake-teicho ever got word that she had decided to help Suiren. She would not take a lie well, and would probably dig in her heels worse if she ever realized that she was being lied to. Suiren could almost taste the words as she measured them out, carefully weighing each phrase.

"Because what Muhicchi said was true. I am a cold hearted bitch, and have been that way for a long time. There is nothing you or anyone else can do to change that."

"But, you would have protected any of us! You would have helped if you-"

She raised a hand and broke off the younger shinigami's tirade. "No, Rukia. I knew what was happening to you, knew I could have helped. And I did not. I do not know what happened to my heart, but take Muhicchi and Matsumoto at their word. I truly am as cold as they believe."

Rukia blinked at her, clearly wanting to protest and Suiren met her gaze straight on.

"Shouldn't you go back inside to help with the testing?" she asked pointedly.

Rukia nodded, still unmoving. With a sigh, Suiren ended her kidou and grabbed the other girl's wrist, leaning over the edge of the roof, careful to support both of them as she swung Rukia in through one of the windows, the fluttering curtains hanging inside letting her know that Tessai must have reopened the ones she had closed in the shop. She looked at the girl, who had landed in a undignified sprawl inside the shop and sealed the windows shut again with a strong baikkidou.

Cold hearted bitch.

The words were too true to be an insult. After all, only a cold hearted bitch would take the effort that she had to make sure that her friends hated her. It was better than them being dead.

She breathed deeply, ignoring the pain that she felt thinking about why she needed to keep doing this after all this time, and went back to writing.

No one else came on the roof after her.


	11. Chapter 10

Sorry for the delay in this chapter being posted. Between class and some of my other stories competing for attention, it took slightly longer to write this part. Also, this is my official caveat, but there will be unexpected plot twists ahead in some of the upcoming chapters. Hopefully you are enjoying this. Might take me a few days but Chapter 11 will be posted soon.

"Did she talk to you at all?" Renji asked as Rukia joined the rest of them in the basement again. The muscles in his shoulders were a little tense as he watched the fight between Ikkaku and Muhicchi. The two men had been fighting for the better part of five minutes before Rukia left, and now, another five minutes later, neither of them seemed to be showing any signs of tiring yet.

Rukia did not answer him but merely shook her head as she moved to stand with the rest of them, carefully elbowing Ichigo so that she could move between him and Renji into a clear view of the fight. Ichigo gave the obligatory grumbling comment at being shoved that he knew Rukia was expecting and let his eyes go back to watching the fight. He knew from personal experience in his own fight with Ikkaku that the man was able to move with an ease that most people could not manage against. But the blonde shinigami seemed to be maneuvering around each of his movements, dodging and tumbling so that from a distance, his style looked like an acrobatic dance, not anything even remotely deadly. Ichigo had never seen anyone able to move like that while using a sword, but Muhicchi was, and well too. It was impossible to tell when any blow landed, but the last one had left a red line running across the bald man's head.

And this was with neither of their swords released.

It was hard to believe that an unranked shinigami like Muhicchi was able to fight against someone as strong as Ikkaku. So hard to believe that Ichigo felt his eyes beginning to narrow.

"How is he able to move that fast?" Ichigo asked Renji. The vice-captain looked at him through narrowed eyes, letting Ichigo know that he had clearly interrupted Renji's thinking by speaking. Ichigo just looked at him, his eyes staying steady and unwavering as he waited for an answer. Maybe it was a good thing that he had broken Renji's line of thought. He had no doubt that Renji had been paying attention to the fight, but after how his face had changed when Rukia had come back from talking to the girl who had come with the unit. He was fairly sure he had heard one of the shinigami call her Suiren, but whatever her name was, he was fairly sure that Renji and Rukia were thinking about her a lot more than the fight.

"He shouldn't be able to, should he? Anyone that strong should have a rank." Ichigo guessed smoothly. Renji continued to stare at him over Rukia's head, making it quite clear that he had no intention of answering Ichigo's questions. No surprise there. Most of Soul Society it seemed felt no need to explain things to him, regardless of what was happening or if he was involved. After all, he was only a substitute shinigami as far as they were concerned. He had almost resigned himself to be left out of the loop one more time when he heard the deep rumbling baritone behind him.

"Muhicchi was not always unranked. He used to be the fourth seat of the Third division. That was before his captain caught him breaking into the wrong files using the office safe and the air vent. I believe Subutaiki-san viewed being transferred and stripped of his rank as the least of the punishments he was offered."

"And how did you learn this about Muhicchi?" Renji asked, his voice as concerned as it was inquisitive.

Nodaikka did not seem to be flapped by the tone and replied calmly, completely unruffled by the question. "I was already in the unit when he was transferred in, and he voiced his opinions a little too loudly to senpai and myself about how he felt being assigned to someone he once would have outranked. Especially someone who was as competent as senpai is. He would have gotten over that eventually, but I helped make sure that eventually came a little sooner than it might have otherwise. Once, he found out that all of us had been ranked officers and at least half had once outranked senpai, he was a little easier to deal with."

A sudden flare of energy blasted through the room and Ichigo turned, half expecting it to be Muhicchi who had finally decided that Ikkaku was deadly enough to release shikai. But Muhicchi was standing there, perfectly still as Ikkaku's sword became the stafflike weapon it was when released.

Of course, he looked ecstatic at being able to have a worthy opponent to fight against, but it was clear that Muhicchi had gotten the better of the fight so far, with not even a scratch on him.

Ikkaku moved, the butt of one of the end pieces of his staff catching on the hem of Muhicchi's hakama, tearing the cloth nearly to the knee.

"Leave my clothes on me!" Muhicchi replied, his tone as sardonic as ever, but he was apparently not happy with how close that last hit had come. After a few more hits from both, Soifon called the fight. It was clear that Muhicchi would be able to manage against any arrancar after what they had seen. Nodaikka followed Renji past Ichigo to the area of the boulder ridden basement that was mostly level and in clear view of the precipe where all of the onlookers had settled. Muhicchi came back, settling comfortably into the traditional lotus meditation stance and began to rub the back of his shoulders completely oblivious of Ichigo, or it seemed anything else. In spite of having no apparent injuries, it seemed that Muhicchi had not gotten through the fight as completely unscathed as it seemed with the effort that the sheer amount of energy that his fighting style required. Nodaikka's at least was similar enough to Renji's that he was able to move slower, allowing himself the needed time to calculate moves and block blows. However, after only a short time, the now familiar cry of "Howl, Zabimaru," echoed through the basement, while once more while Nodaikka still left his sword unreleased. Still, there was a determination that honed the fighting to a degree that Ichigo was not used to, even with the shinigami. In an odd way the men's insistence on fighting this well to please the officer who was in charge of their group reminded him of his younger sister Karin and the group of boys who insisted on trying to keep up with her as she bossed them around. Suiren herself though reminded him more like Ishida. The way she kept herself so distant, the colder personality, the stubborn pride that they based every decision off of. All she needed was one of the damn crosses that Ishida sewed on everything and she might have passed for being Quincy as well. At least she did not seem nearly as arrogant Ishida, which might have been her saving grace he thought, dodging slightly as a chunk of rock which had splintered off one of the boulders came veering towards them. Ichigo decided whatever he thought of the currently absent officer, she had clearly made sure that this unit could fight. Renji was breathing harder as he fought, as if trying to keep up with Nodaikka, and one of the blows which should have immobilized his right shoulder barely grazed him as he dodged, with a gracefulness that Ichigo would not have expected from someone that size. Muhicchi glanced over, catching Ichigo gaping oddly and smiled slightly before shrugging.

"If Nodaikka was the caveman he looks like, he would never have been a tenth seat straight out of the Academy in his original division."

Ichigo just kept his gaze straight ahead, staring as he caught Renji in the side, leaving the vice captain badge flapping limply against his arm as Renji's arm took the brunt of the blow. Enough so for Soifon to call halt.

"Eleventh?" Ichigo guessed, knowing he was wrong from the dry laughter.

"No, Do you really think that Kenpachi is the only one who gets to deal with troublemakers like us? There is a reason that the Seventh transferred him out."

Before Ichigo got a chance to ask anything else, Tessai came down the ladder, and following him was Suiren, just in time for the last testing.


	12. Chapter 11

Author's Note: Writing has been slowed lately do to copious amounts of paperwork. Here is where the plot twists become truly interesting. Please pay attention to the various references to Suiren's potential father. So far, it has only been implied with Aizen because of her appearance. However, there are a few other possibilities. One of them is in this chapter. But telling which one is right isn't really fair, is it? Also, if anybody can guess what the very bizarre connection between Suiren and the Kuchiki family is - not the ban, but the other reference which sort of started to creep up a little with Rukia on the roof and this chapter, and will actually make its entrance soon. If you can, and are nice enough to review, I will write a short fanfic for anyone who guesses correctly with the characters/pairings of their choice. Hint, hint- please review.

_It had taken her forever to climb up the steep ledges that surrounded the area of Seretei where she had been trying to find the cave one of the many street urchins who had come to her mother in the seven years it had been since she had come to the Academy looking for an 'apprenticeship'. The fact that Yuyake actually did provide warmth, shelter, and food when they came in return for running errands or helping with the most minor mending and alterations that even Suiren had been allowed to help with when she was still at home shocked them. As did Suiren when she occasionally arrived, always careful to wear her yukata and haori so it did not attract too much attention here. After all, while she would be in no danger if she showed up in uniform, she knew that most of the residents of her old neighborhood would be happy if they never saw those robes again. Without the telltale robes though, the apprentices had begun to warm to her as 'one of them', and she now often found small trinkets waiting for her when she came to visit on her days off. The only bad thing about her mother's apprentices was that they never stayed long, who often scurried off to find shelter in another section of Rukongai once their reiatsu began to wear enough that they actually aged. Normally though, there were one or two who she could talk into helping her when she was hurt who were able to manage to survive in the craggy outskirts of Seretei where almost no one ever came. And after the last blow in her fight today had rendered her sword arm all but useless, forcing her to finish the fight with a kick to the knee rather than risk raising it above her shoulder, she needed it healed. And stitches would not show as badly as the healing kidou would when she came back from her half a day off. She put her hand along the edge of the cave to balance, wincing as she saw the deep gash that the sword had given her. She had been very lucky that Urahara-teicho had not noticed the cut that ran down the inside of her arm when, deciding she looked tired and a bit weak today, he had given her the rest of the day off. She did not know if her normally understanding would have been quite so gentle if he had known the actual reason for why she looked so haggard. Still, after a few minutes there had been no answer, and she was debating leaving, when she heard the sound of voices. She knew that it was not the shinigami who had attacked her, who mercifully would be still dealing with his captain and whatever reprimand he would be receiving for the report that the captain of the Ninth had filed when he had seen her. Very lucky she had taken the idea into her head to run when she did, forcing him to try to chase after her with a drawn sword. No, it had not even been a half an hour since that had happened, so there was no chance it was him. Also, while the voice had the half drawled quality that Gin's sometimes had, it was softer, less smooth, and certainly more refined than his was. In addition, the person murmuring to themselves was female. The same as Mother's last four apprentices, the four who might actually still be around. Using her left arm to support most of her weight, she climbed carefully into the mouth of the cave and tried to make her way down as quietly as she could. Once she was at reasonably sure that she could lower herself without pulling her right shoulder too much, she jumped down, looking around the enormous cave. There was no one in sight. Softly at first, she began to call, trying to remember the names. Even with Mother taking care of them, her assistants never lasted very long, and living in a place like this did not seem likely to increase their life span. She began to call louder, hoping that someone would answer her._

_Someone did, as she felt a hand move to clap firmly over her mouth, picking her up slightly in the process. Someone certainly had realized she was here She began to struggle, initially the sort of girly protests one would expect, and then less subtle, more genuine fighting movements. The figure holding her was refusing to move yet, and she began to fight in a way that she had in Rukongai, counting on her opponent not being used to any attempt to hold a struggling child. Not aging as quickly meant she still was flexible with her bones not fused enough to easily break, enough so to put all of her effort into the thrashing, and no small amount of the various fighting skills she had learned._

_The person who was holding her loosened their grip enough in attempts to hold her and she pulled herself free, turning and hitting at the midriff of the person she was facing. The person moved to block the hit, and she used her left arm to try to get enough leverage to hit back. However unused to children the person in front of her was, they certainly were used to fighting, she realized as the person practically immobilized her in a way that had pretty much picked her up and tossed her over their shoulder. She continued to pound against the person's back, kicking her legs as hard as she could, but even the hits she was able to land seemed not to phase the person. Frustrated and scared, she kicked one last time._

_And found herself sitting on the ground, blinking as the dust swirled around her and settled while she stared at the person in front of her, yelping as she felt herself being scooped off the ground again, a hand keeping a very firm grip on the collar of her yukata as it held her there, like a limp kitten waiting for the rebuke._

_More than a rebuke, she thought honestly, as she watched Shihoin-teicho taking her in as she stood, leaning in until she was nearly touching her._

_"Well, it looks like the kid might be able to help with the training problem my little bee is having. If she can explain what she is doing here."_

_While still seeming relaxed, she had no doubt that there was an underlying threat to the captain's words that she really did not want to test._

_"I was looking for one of my Mother's apprentices. I hurt myself on the way here looking for them, and I was hoping they could stitch me up." she explained, truly wishing she could see just how much slack that she had to try to move in the hold that Shihoin-teicho was holding her in. _

_"Really? Well, the first I believe since you really did seem to be looking for someone else. But we work hard to keep this cave a secret, and having you yell wouldn't work very well. But that cut down your arm...." the female captain shook her head and held up a finger._

_"You have two more chances."_

_"It's true though! I, it is an old cut, but I reopened it when I was climbing."_

_Another finger joined the first._

_"I did! On the rock by the entrance," she said, remembering the hook shaped piece of granite sticking out of the cave wall near the ladder._

_Shihoin-teicho stepped back and crossed her arms as she looked at Suiren. Both arms, she registered briefly before the captain rather unceremoniously grabbed the back of the yukata where the other hand had been and began to walk purposefully towards a crater a few feet ahead._

_"You're persistent, raindrop, but there are a couple problems with that. The wound is too fresh, and no one would have mistaken a sword cut for scraping your arm on a rock. And you had been looking before you got hurt."_

_"How do you know that?" she asked the other woman suspiciously_

_"I wouldn't have gotten a report about another fight then, would I?" Her eyes widened as the man's voice registered from behind where she had been a few seconds before._

_"T-t-teicho? But how-,"_

_Right then, Shihoin-teicho unceremoniously dropped her with a splash into the steaming thing of water. She came up gasping a second later and hauled herself out, taking care to drape her haori over the hot springs so that she did not drip everywhere. Even if that did mean that she was shivering a little as she turned and faced both captains, dressed in her yukata. _

_"Are you done attacking my subordinates yet, Yourichi-san?" Urahara-teicho asked, looking just as relaxed as Shihoin-teicho had._

_"Almost, Kisuke. Just need to clear up a few things first." she said with a smile before turning back to Suiren._

_"First, you will get an order from me when you are to report in a day or so from Kisuke. I need someone for one of my younger members to spar with to correct a few mistakes she has been making lately. The fact that you can break my timing enough to get me to let go of you will help with that. Either you are to come to the Second division or she will go there. But it will help both of you to fight better. That is an order."_

_She looked at Urahara-teicho, and he nodded. "Since you will insist on getting on fights with Ichimaru, I will allow you to do this. Between this and your training with Shiba Miyako in kendo, maybe you'll keep surviving."_

_"Secondly, you will come here on your days off and spar with me, so that I know that you are keeping in shape. And not one word to anyone about this cave. I told you before how hard me and Kisuke work to keep this a secret. And third, when I am not on duty, call me Yourichi, not Shihoin-teicho, dammit."_

_"Yes, Shiho- ummm, Yourichi-san?"_

_"You're getting the hang of this raindrop, you're starting to get it."_

At least this time she had been invited, Suiren thought a trifle amused as she followed Tessai down to the basement. It was almost an exact copy of the cave that she had stumbled upon as a child, which made her smile. She could only imagine how much work it must have taken Urahara-san to create this replica of his former sanctuary, down to the last detail. There was only one thing that it was missing.

Hot springs. Hot springs that healed wounds.

An omission that Suiren was beginning to imagine he regretted as she noticed Renji's injured arm. She bit her lip and looked at him carefully. He _could_ heal on his own in a short time. Something that she should let him do. She reminded herself to focus, forcing her words back to the instructions she repeated to Nodaika and Muhicchi day in and day out, the ones which had become their units unofficial motto, and her own personal philosophy on anything besides fighting. It did not matter that he was one of her formal students, or that she had heard him defending her when she had started being sent to the Eleventh exclusively after the last trial. None of that mattered. Completing the mission did. A mission he would not be able to heal his arm fast enough to complete.

Damn.

At least she would have the energy to do this, she hoped. Between the reiatsu buffering, the tablet she had taken to reinforce her body modifications, and the pills that Muhicchi had stolen for her from the Fourth division, she would be able to do this and keep fighting.

Through all of this, she tried to keep her face as blank as possible. She had considerable practice with that given her dealings with Mayuri. Still, with the healing kidou feeling as if it were bubbling through the skin, she pulled it to the surface, a nearly invisible flash as it touched Renji's arm. Fast enough that she hoped no one had seen the tired pinched crease that releasing the kidou left along her temples. Renji started at her in shock as he began moving his arm experimentally. She briefly wondered if people would keep looking at her like that for the rest of her life now as she continued to walk to where Yourichi and Urahara were waiting, talking sotto voce to each other.

"Honestly, Kisuke. She has to be one of yours with how much she meddles."

All of the shinigami on the side looked carefully neutral, but the tension was obvious, as if her healing kidou had given them all the more reason to distrust her.

Would it ever stop?

Probably not.


	13. Chapter 12

Whatever she might think of Suiren, Matsumoto had to admit that it would have been hard to find anyone else with her particular skill set for this mission. And there was no one in all of Soul Society that it would have been harder for her to deal with than the formerly condemned criminal who she was watching fight with Urahara-san. She had just stopped her shunpo in midstep, throwing her full weight into a kick that seemed to be aimed at nothing. At least, it was not until she saw the blur beside her slow enough, making it clear that she had gotten a hit on Yourichi. Not a critical one, but a hit nonetheless. Matsumoto sighed watching the jutte flashing in the light. Somehow, in a hundred years, she would have thought some of the hurt she felt at seeing the other woman would have faded. Even a little in the past thirty years since she had seen her on the night of her arrest. Time had changed nothing though. If anything, it made things worse. Seeing her heal Renji as casually as she had confessed to trying to murder one of his friends, an act that Matsumoto had seen herself. For what seemed like the millionth time she wondered if Suiren was insane. If _she_ was insane for staying here. But the mission in the living world was important and so was Soifon's. In a few hours, things would go back to the way they had been before she had come, and she could drown any thought of Suiren in a bottle of sake. Right now, she would focus on the fight, on the movements. She had never seen anyone who fought like Suiren was, but there was an odd quality watching her fight Yourichi and Urahara, hand-to-hand and sword, at the same time. She wasn't the only one watching either. Her captain seemed to be just as absorbed as he analyzed the fight. She could only imagine what her captain had thought at her outburst earlier when she had first seen Suiren earlier. No, she corrected. She knew what her captain thought, that it was some mindless petty grudge that she held against Suiren. Which was hard to argue, especially with Suiren being her normal cold, professional, psychotically psychopathic self that must have looked so serene compared with Matsumoto's own sniping. She had been struggling to keep her temper in check after that incident, especially given the sharpness in Urahara's voice when he had asked her to stop. Still, even sitting here, there was part of her that hoped that mission or no, the serene expression which Suiren presented so easily would slip again so that everyone could see the person that Matsumoto had, the person who grasped at power in ways that even Gin had abhorred, not caring who it hurt as long as she could blindly get what she desired at the time. It was a small part, but a very strong one that seemed to wash over any memories she had of the little girl who had been so shy and sweet in the Academy. The girl she had quickly found out never existed. That would not help anyone though, and right now her captain had enough to deal with given how wrong things had gone in the information gathering assignment so far. And while she might dislike the harsh, calculating shinigami who had come to help, the fact that Suiren had been holding her own against Urahara and Yourichi for nearly ten minutes now, they needed her to be the cold hearted bitch her own people had claimed that she was.

She stretched lazily and looked over at where both captains were sitting. Soifon looked proudly on as she gauged the reiatsu the way that she had in timing the other two bouts. Hitsugaya still looked as if her were trying to figure out some out of place detail that would explain some of what made Suiren seem so different from the other shinigami.

"I have never seen anyone fight like that," Rukia said, her voice half breathy from admiration as she watched Suiren dodge yet another set of hits, flipping herself backwards easily.

"Neither have I," Hitsugaya murmured in agreement, an odd note in his voice shedding some suspicion on that fact. He looked at Matsumoto. "Do you know who trained her in hand to hand?"

"I did," Soifon said, the proud look beginning to become an almost smug satisfaction. "Yourichi-sama asked me to."

Matsumoto shook her head and kept silent. What sort of person was the former Thirteenth division member that she had trained with the Second division?

She was sure her captain was thinking the same thing. But like so many things about Suiren, some things were best left unsaid.


	14. Chapter 13

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay in posting the past few days. Class has begun to get back into full swing after break, alas. And tis the season for plot bunnies to inspire one shots apparently as well. Yeah for everyone who has still been viewing this. That makes me happy. Any guesses yet one what Suiren's connection to the Kuchiki house is? Not many hints in this chapter but there are twists of their own, so never you fear. Reviews would be lovely too. I don't always reply, but the input helps, and I do try to include the criticisms as much as I can with the story. The plot twists will be dissected more closely in the next chapter's note, so keep reading. I really am not just writing this to confuse everyone. It's a bit long.

_"Miyako! Where the hell have you been? It was supposed to be a standard sweep of Rukongai and checking the latest report. Teicho has been looking all over Seretei for you! _I_ have been looking all over Seretei for you!"_

_The man yelling was tall with black hair like the shinigami lady's, only it was short and cut so that it stood sort of in spikes. Exhausted as she was from the long walk, she clung even tighter to the side of the woman's hakama to hold herself up, not sure if she should be protecting her the way that she protected Mother from the people who yelled at her. She was just beginning to yell back at him for being mean from where she stood when he seemed to have caught sight of her and her newest toy, which the shinigami woman had begun to carry when her arms had begun to tire two miles back._

_He crouched down in front of her, until he was sitting on the balls of his feet and nearly at eye level before smiling and saying hello to her. Although smiling, she had learned, did not mean that someone wasn't going to attack you. Still, the other man stayed there, simply looking at her._

_"And who are you?" he asked, the way he asked the question reminded her of a few of the older boys in the neighborhood who sometimes played with her and helped her steal food when Mother had not had enough sewing to pay for any rather than the sort of men she had fought earlier._

_"Warigari Suiren," she answered, suddenly very shy and a little scared at the thought of standing and talking to two strange shinigami with no way of knowing how Mother was while she was gone._

_"Ah," he said, looking at her and nodding solemn in spite of the smile. "Well then, something needs to be done about this. Don't you agree?"_

_She nodded, not quite sure what to think of the man. He actually was talking to her. Not over her head and not patronizing her as if she weren't there. She only remembered Mother and a few of the other kids in their neighborhood ever talking to her like that. Never another adult, and most certainly never a man. It seemed that the only men who ever noticed her were people like the bad men._ _Still, even while he kept talking, he didn't seem like them. _

_"Well, Warigari Suiren, we seem to be stuck. You see, you were part of the reason that Miyako was so late I was worried about her. On the other hand, I yelled at her, scaring both of you because of that. So, how about I carry you the rest of the way so we all get there faster and call it even?"_

_Her eyes narrowed with very unchildlike suspicion. "You aren't going to hit me because you don't like me?"_

_"Hit you? But why-?" The man sounded out and out confused by the question._

_"Kaien, Suiren is Warigari Yuyake's daughter. I spoke with her mother about bringing her back with me after I found the girl trying to hold off five grown men who were threatening to attack both her and her family with a Level 56 Baikkidou, and a Level 31 Hikkidou."_

_She did not know what the numbers meant, but the other shinigami's eyes widened as he heard them very carefully picking Suiren up. She struggled for a second, until she realized that she was safe. She looked at Miyako, who she still thought of as the shinigami lady, and the other woman nodded in a way that let her know that the person holding her really was as safe as they seemed._

_He moved really fast then, and she shut her eyes, turning toward the stranger so that she wouldn't get dizzy looking at the dark flashing forms._

_He stopped a few seconds later and Suiren shifted just enough that she could see the forms of three men, all dressed in the black shinigami robes. But one had a small band wrapped around his arm, and the other two were wearing white haoris which covered theirs. One of the men in white sighed in relief while the other rolled his eyes._

_"Well, Ukitake, it seems ya found yer two officers ya misplaced."_

_The man who was not wearing white adjusted his glasses mildly and looked at the group that had just entered. "I think there is more to it than that, teicho, since Kaien-san is clearly carrying a child._

_She could not see the shinigami lady, but she heard her step forward. "Gomenesai, teicho, Hirako-teicho. I was not trying to worry everyone. I found the child when I was investigating the Shiboshi incident in Rukongai and removed her from a fight where she was using kidou. I have Warigari Yuyake's permission to enroll her daughter in the Academy. However, while I know it's irregular, I think that it may be best if she is housed in a division and not a dormitory with the other students."_

_While she could not see the man in white who the woman was addressing, the other man in white snorted._

_"Miyako, she's a kid. A cute kid, at least asleep like that, but a kid. She's automatically dangerous. Especially if she's the brat from the Shiboshi incident. Those guys are crazy."_

_She turned away from the shoulder she was leaning against and looked at the man who had said that, meeting the blonde's eyes head on. "I'm not Shiboshi."_

_"I don't think she likes you very much," the other man in white observed. She could now see that he had white hair and was smiling, trying not to laugh as he watched the tall blonde's irritation. "I thought you knew more about children than that, Shinji."_

_"I know plenty about kids, Ukitake, and none of them like me. The only thing that kids do is kick ya in the shins or try an' bite ya."_

_"I think you have children confused with Hiyori-fuiteicho," the man with glasses observed dryly, before he noticed the pile of metal that the shinigami lady was still holding. "And, Miyako-san, what are you holding._

_Suiren struggled free, jumping down and taking the machine off of the shinigami, glad to be able to explain. "That's my new toy. It's a rock skipper. I didn't get a chance to try it yet, but if I put the rock here and flip this switch, when I turn the crank it will skip the rocks like it does when there are a lot of puddles after it rains. Watch!"_

_She picked up a pebble and put it into the funnel, turning the crank and watching the tiny stone rattling in the gears until it came out glowing on the other side. She then threw it, expecting it to skip like the rocks that her friends threw in the street did. Instead, it blew up, taking a small hole out of the white haired man's haori, her hands going to her mouth in very upset surprise. Her rock skipper was not supposed to do that!_

_"A Level 82 Hikiddou in a child that young!" he asked, seeming more surprised than upset, in spite of the damage to his clothing._

_"Ai, teicho." The lady stopped her explanation, looking down at where she was pulling on the edge of her sleeves. "Suiren, this is important but-"_

_"I know, but I just wanted to know what is the kidou thing you were talking about?"_

_"And you say small children are not dangerous," the blonde man muttered to himself._

She had to assume that the pile of metal she had noticed sitting against the wall as she came down from the fighting was supposed to be a copy of the reiatsu infuser which she had created by accident as a child. Honestly, she hoped that was what the heap of parts was. Otherwise, she might truly lose her temper as she began to make corrections to the device. It probably sounded like it anyway.

"You idiot! All of your screws are loose." Suiren fought the nerve to glare at whoever was snickering. "And you didn't even bother to square it properly! It really should be bolted in place, with how the gasket that holds the chute in place is set up, but it should work."

"Well, Warigari-san, I believe that given the fact that Tessai and I were duplicating this without blueprints after a hundred years, it was not bad." Urahara defended, the soft chiding completely belied by the fact he could not quit grinning, even after having her completely defaming his intelligence and general ability to function.

"Maybe, but I thought after a hundred years, you wouldn't still be making the same mistakes with it?"

"Yes, well, not all of us have your abilities with your toys. You really should share more."

"And risk having more things broken? No thank you, Urahara-san. I am more than capable of fixing things."

"Yes. I still remember your solution with the backpack hangar for your zanpakuto. You don't still use that, do you?"

"Not unless it is necessary," she replied, surprised at how much she had missed this sort of informal teasing. She had never really indulged in it that much, but it seemed as though it had been years since she her jokes had been more than a sarcastic or witty way to criticize and hide her weaknesses.

Because it had been years, she realized with a shock as she refocused herself, apologizing to Soifon and Hitsugaya, as both captains both seemed to be looking at her critically. And being here did nothing to change the reason why she could not joke or speak with people the way a normal shinigami might. However, all of the comments that they made seemed to be analyzing her fighting and her unit's fighting to determine how to break apart the groups that would be working to gather the information which had been requested to help determine the strength of the traitor's forces and the sort of strategies that would be needed in fighting them, something which no one had been able to determine so far. In a way, she was pleased to hear that it would be her and not her subordinates who would be gathering the main bulk of the information while Muhicchi and Nodaika worked with the main hollow fighting groups. Yourichi smiled and nodded approvingly.

"I told you that she would be the same. Our little raindrop here is too stubborn to have let herself get out of practice. She's too much like Kisuke for it to be less."

"I am not sure if that last is quite true, Yourichi-san," Matsumoto said, not with any rancor, but simply as if she were stating a fact. In her own way, Suiren agreed. She would not have needed to make some of the decisions she had if she were more like her former captain. "But, that wasn't what I meant to say. Can I ask for a precaution on her part before the mission, given some of the information that are in these records, and the sealed ones?"

"Of course," Soifon answered, "As long as the sealed information remains sealed."

"It will. But since we are dealing with someone who was condemned by the Central 46 for attempted murder of a vice-captain and the attempted entrapment of another vice-captain and a captain, it only is common sense to ask for some certainty that she will not betray everyone here on this mission."

Urahara went to open his mouth and Suiren stopped him. "I suppose that you will not count my word as good enough?"

Hitsugaya looked at his vice-captain and shook his head. "Matsumoto, you were told what would happen if you brought your personal feelings into this."

"She is not," Soifon stated simply. "She was tried and convicted and pardoned all within a week. Matsumoto-fuiteicho was one of the first witnesses on the scene, as were Kyoraku-teicho, Ise-fuiteicho, and Ukitake-teicho. There was no doubt she was guilty and that it was simply an attempt for clemency. However, we were told then, and I will remind you now that she is to be treated as if she were innocent. That means that you will take her word. If she breaks it, I will kill her myself. Is that good enough."

"Perfectly," Matsumoto agreed.

Regretting her desire to turn the conversation more serious, Suiren excused herself, taking the watch on the roof while everyone else rested and visited while waiting for the arrankar to arrive. The loneliness was an improvement over the betrayed look she had seen on Urahara-san's face.

In a way it was regrettable that she could not take the coward's way out. That was one disadvantage of having the same immunity to poison that her current captain and vice-captain did.

It would have saved her the effort of having to survive the constant attacks anymore.

After all, pardoned or not, no one would ever trust a traitor.

What would the point in arguing that be? She had confessed herself during the trial. It would be pointless to recant now.

She checked her communicator and went back inside for the final briefing before they left.

If there was any doubt in her mind, she knew as soon as she saw the others that she would be working on her own. She had broken her own motto and let herself get too close to remain the solid cold hearted bitch they expected.

At least alone, there would be no one she could betray, even by accident.


	15. Chapter 14

Author's Note

Okay, for the inquiring minds that want to know, a summary of the plot twists so far, in case you missed them.

Suiren looks like Aizen

Yourichi keeps commenting on how much she is like Urahara

She has the same immunity as Mayuri and Nemu to poison. And we all know why Nemu is immune.

Plus, throw in the potential of Shiboshi, which is simply a group which I created that may be explained later. This chapter is a little slow, but there a lot of important clues and hints with this and the whole "What is going on between Suiren and Kuchiki house?" Again, reviews plus guesses equals free story to the winner. For that matter, reviews alone are good. Please! Okay. Now, back to our regularly scheduled story. Will try to update more promptly.

Renji scowled as he moved with his group towards the signal. He was not sure what sort of luck had landed him with both Ichigo and the smaller of the two Fifth unit subordinates, but it was the sort of luck he could do without. At least Ichigo, while at times annoying, he knew he could fight with. And while the other man's intelligence and abilities had already begun to show his worth for the mission, he was too much like Gin for Renji to feel fully comfortable working with him. The fact that he was smiling only reinforced the resemblance. Renji wanted to yell at him, wipe that smug look off of his face, and instead scowled, lowering the replacement kidou visor that the man had given him. No doubt on Warigari-sensei's orders. He was kind of regretting the fact that Warigari wasn't the one guarding his back, even as that thought became jumbled into confusion as he tried to fit the idea of his former teacher into the role of blackmailer and murderer that everyone had been trying to peg her in. Even now, knowing that she had confessed to it, he still could not really believe it. It wasn't like the shocked inability to understand when they had learned about Aizen's betrayal. His brain just truly could not wrap around the thought of what she was charged with, and yet having seen how hard Ukitake had tried to help stop Rukia's execution, it was hard to see how he would have done less unless she was truly as guilty and callused as Matsumoto had said, and that damned Muhicchi who had accused her of being cold hearted in the first place. He bit his lip, hard enough to draw blood, as he stared, watching for the opening in the sky against the dark night clouds. Nothing from this way, yet. Which unfortunately left him stuck with the knowledge that he had from seeing her talking with the man that day years before, before Rukia had left with his current captain. Truly, if she had wanted power so badly, calling in on the legitimate power she had a right to from that would have been easier than blackmail. Yet for some reason, she had not. All of that, even the drive for power seemed to be something totally removed from the kidou instructor he had known, who in spite of her assignment to teach only the more skilled students in the Academy kidou, had taken on the worst as remedial cases individually, working to improve their skill. Including him. None of what was going on now made sense, especially when she could have killed him for knowing her secret years before. Whatever was going on, there was nothing he could do to change what had happened. But dammit, this entire thing just seemed wrong, even though all the pieces somehow fit with what she had said!

The darkness began to change and white began to form in a hole a ways in front of him. Looking up at the gargantura and the arrankar emerging from within it, Renji had never been happier to see the damned things in his life since they were currently a definite improvement over the inside of his mind.

Flash stepping forward, he gave the order to attack, giving in to the berserk battle rage that he had learned in the Eleventh division that left room for strategy and fighting, not thought. Which was fine by him.


	16. Chapter 15

_She had gotten the note after when her hours were supposed to have already ended, but with the division still being worked on from the year before and her two newest unit members, the amount of worked seemed to have tripled from the normal baseline standard that came with research to a pile which half the time covered her desk. A scenario which her most recent and reluctant transfer was doing nothing to alleviate with the constant reports criticizing both his behavior and acts that bordered on outright insubordination as far as she was concerned. So far the week had been mostly free from incidents, and she was beginning to believe that her various lessons and his inability to outdo her had finally beaten the fact that Subutaiki Muhicchi was no longer the beloved and somewhat feared fourth seat of the Third division through his wounded pride and thick skull. It had taken her a few brief seconds to read Nanao's crisp black handwriting on the pale pink stationary which she used for her personal notes rather than the office ones, the monogrammed name in the corner underlined as means of a signature. She glanced at the clock on the wall, and gathering her papers into a pile which at least somewhat resembled orderliness with an express order for Muhicchi to finish sorting them into piles so that she could finish when she got back. While he looked extremely disgruntled at the thought, the now unranked officer began to do what she asked with only minimal grumbling, and she ran off towards the woods outside the Thirteenth where she used to practice. Not that she had had a chance to in the twenty years since Kaien died, but running along that particular trail brought back so many memories of that place and the nights that she had spent training there that she almost expected to see him there. He was not of course, but then neither was Nanao. She began to look around the clearing frantically, finally worried enough at what would make the normally punctual vice-captain run late after asking for this meeting out here in the middle of the night. They had been friends too long her for her to assume anything except the worst and finally, deciding to completely disregard the courtesy, she began to call softly, hoping that Nanao was not too injured to respond. A shadowy figure moved out of the clearing and Suiren felt herself relax, until the figure actually came fully into view._

_"Ichimaru, what are you doing out here?" _

_"Why, Suiren-chan, imagine findin' ya outta here a' night like this! Bit dangerous goin' around like that, a bitty little thing who ain't so much taller 'an her sword yet. I 'as jus' lookin' for someone I'd a been a meanin' ta talk with, same as ya it seems. What made ya think that Nanao-chan'd be out this a way?"_

_"I really do not see how that concerns anyone except for myself," she said brusquely, rather annoyed at the comment about her sword. She was, at least in terms of biological age if not true chronological age only a few years younger than Kuchiki Rukia and certainly no older than Hinamori Momo had looked when the girl had begun to work with her more advanced kidou students in her third year. And it had been well over sixty years since she had had any of the obvious problems balancing or moving with the daito which her sword appeared as when it was in its unreleased state and even then she had avoided going anywhere outside of her division without it released and tied into its sheath. It annoyed her even more not knowing what had happened to Nanao to make her this late._

_Gin stepped away from where he had been lolling against one of the trees and moved towards her moving slowly as if he were a cat playing with a mouse. "Now, now, Suiren-chan, I don't think I agree wit' yer way ya be a thinkin' there. It has everythin' ta do with me if it's 'bout that little note ya got. Cause I don't think Nanao'll be comin' this a way tonight."_

_She turned to face him head on, the expression on her face showing the cold hatred she felt toward her one time friend and the underlying threat in his voice as he began to circle her._

_"Ichimaru, if you hurt her-,"_

_"If you hurt her," he mimicked in a mockery of her own voice. "Really, Suiren-chan. And yer supposed ta be so bright. Nanao never sent ya no note. She's nice and safe in her little office, and is gonna stay that way as long as ya play along with this really nice. 'Kay now?"_

_She stood there watching his hands playing with the bit of skin showing above the neckline of her uniform and she gritted her teeth as she tried to break free of the grip she was in. Tried and stopped almost immediately realized how futile that was with how he had her. There was no way that she could get free with her arms pinned to her side by his elbows, Shinsou trailing lazily in his hand, tracing around the hollow of her throat._

_"I didn' hear ya answer, there."_

_"You lay one finger on her after this is over, Ichimaru, and I will break your neck in your sleep."_

_"My, my. Such big threats there, Suiren-chan. But that means ya'll play for now, now don't it?"_

_He did not wait long enough for her retort to get out before tightening the grip on her shoulder until it had passed discomfort and was bordering on true pain. And honestly, beyond a few oaths and very fatal hakiddou incantations which came to mind, she truly had very little to say to him. If only the same were true for Gin._

_"Now, let's see. Whadda I start with a here?" The hands moved slightly, almost imperceptibly as he kept hold of her shoulders while nudging the sleeves of her kosode down her arms so that it hung half loose. "Guess I should be a startin' with thankin' ya for helpin' us all these years. Never'd been able ta get away with so much without it. Or maybe we would. None too likely ta be believin' someone as crazy as they all think ya are. But, that means even if ya tell everyone 'bout this or some a the old stories from when we was kids, after this long, ya'd be thought as guilty as us. Ain't that cozy now?"_

_Whether he was referring to his own closeness to her or his words, Suiren was not sure. Either way though, she tended to disagree with the assessment. At least one thing that she could see just from the way he was looking as he touched her that, regardless of his reasons for doing this, he at least was as unhappy about needing to touch her as she was, even if that did not make him reluctant enough to stop._

_"Course, both a us know that ain't true, but won't stop everyone else from thinkin' that, now will it? Don't matter much ya don't know who all is in with us, and what we mean ta be doin', or even if the plans 'ave changed or not, cause they'll know ya had to be a hidin' somethin' from them. And since yer already hidin' who your father is- well, that'd be enough, wouldn' it?"_

_She was busy enough trying to keep control of her temper at his words that she was able to more than half block his words from her mind with at least marginal success until she felt his hand move and begin untying the second obi that she wore, tying her kosode shut. Her hand moved up in an automatic gesture to stop him and she heard the soft "tsk" of him teasingly chiding her. _

_"Now I thought ya'd play a bit longer 'an 'at, girl. 'Specially afta your father took such good care ta make sure 'at no one'd come lookin' fer ya right away." He lowered her arm back to her side, and the top slid most of the way down her arms._

_"What are you talking about Ichimaru? If you cannot remember the fact that my father is unknown and listed as probable Shiboshi, then I suggest you pay attention to the number of male shinigami in ratio to female. The bone structure is not uncommon, so the person might well be dead. I do not care. And truthfully, the only two shinigami I can think of offhand who are male and have similar bone structures are my current and former captain. Or are you suggesting that it was one of them?_

_"Well, there all old enough," Gin said laconically, "but I don't think it was them. Yourichi'd a skinned Urahara-san for 'at. And Mayuri- if ya are his, he sure as hell don't know it. No, I mean the one ya left out, the one who actually knows about the blue ink that never came out a the wound in your mother's shoulder that night when she went to run off."_

_She said nothing but simply shut her eyes and stood stone still, not daring to budge with the amount of reiatsu he was exerting. She could get out without hurting herself, but not easily, and given how much Gin still outranked her with swordsmanship, she did not wish to know. Besides, with every move, he told her exactly what would happen to Nanao, to Rangiku, to any of, maybe even all of her students if she moved to struggle even once more. And when he said he would kill all of them, she had no doubt that he meant it. Her teeth were clenched for what felt like hours, not in the half-murderous growl her request for Ichimaru to remove his hands had been, but simply to keep kidou from pouring out of her as he continued to pull at her clothes, leaving her in her bindings and hakama, the strips of cloth which fastened both feeling far looser than they should have. The sound of footsteps and a voice approached and she worried for Nanao a second and what would happen when she saw this when she realized that the person who was coming was Kira._

_"Poor Kira-kun. Me gone all this time and not tellin' him where I was goin'. You're bein' awful brave not screamin' ta keep Nanao-chan safe but I'll tell ya a secret. It don't matter. There all gonna die. The reason I didn' hurt Ran all them years ago is cause I never meant ta hurt her. Now, push my hand and I'll have ta, but you'll be dead, and so will all those folks ya wanna protect. All a' them, from ol' Renji-kun ta Rukia-chan. Ukitake-teicho might be the only snag in that, but ya know, Hollow accidents are just so hard ta explain. But ya know about that after what happened with Risa an' all. And your mother, but that's no matter. Course, then there's the sorta experiment 'at made the sorta Hollow 'at would a killed yer students a ways back if'n Aizen-teicho an' me hadn' done somethin' 'bout that. Afta' all, a couple a' Academy students woulda had less a shot 'an Miyako an' a Kaien did, don'cha think? Now, let's get this act over with._

_Without any warning, he tried to kiss her, smashing his lips roughly against hers. She bit him, hard enough to taste the copper of blood in her mouth, anger peeling through her as the meaning of his words sunk in. He pulled his mouth away, laughing darkly as his smile widened and he bent down to whisper near her ear._

_"I really oughta push 'at further, but ya leave a bad taste in my mouth. Couldn' hold on a few more minutes, could ya. Well, it looks like it'll be a Kira 'at'll be the first ta pay for that." Sure enough, from the edge of the clearing, she could hear the flabbergasted vice-captain gasping at what she was sure was an interesting sight. Gin's smile dropped and he jerked towards her as if something had pulled at him and pushed her harshly enough that she tumbled as he began talking again, not bothering to lower his volume this time. "That's sad, Suiren-chan. For ya to stoop so far, an' not even willin' ta help 'em outta 'at sort a problem. An' after all this, I tol' ya already. I jest can't be lettin' ya be doin' stuff like that."_

_And all the while, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Kira beginning to move, running up to try to help his captain from what must have looked like an attack. He was already in her line of sight, and Gin's as well, if the way his hands were moving almost habitually into the shape of a kidou gesture meant anything._

_She snapped then, letting her kidou funnel into her hand,into a baikkidou. It was a poor substitute for the sort of killing number she wanted to use on Gin, but there were none which would not hold Kira in their radius as well, not with how fragile her control was right now. Even as her hand went up, Gin hit it to the side, batting the released energy towards Kira, binding him quite painfully. Instinctively, she took a second to damn Gin and ran over to help, pulling her zanpakuto free to cut the bindings. It was an odd property and one that seemed to be a constant if she focused on it, even when the sword was not released into the form of the jutte she was unsheathing. She had knelt down when she felt two hands grabbing roughly at her arms and felt herself being dragged to her feet. Not by Gin though, but Rangiku, while Nanao, Kyoraku-teicho, and Ukitake-teicho looked on. She could hear Gin explaining things to Matsumoto as he unbound Kira and helped the man up, steering him towards the nearest Fourth division medical station with her help. She looked at the other three and fell forward in apology meaning to explain when a very tired sounding voice from the end spoke._

_"Get up, Warigari-san. You can save the explanations and lies for the trial. I would not have believed such behavior of you had I not seen it myself. I am sad to see that life in the Twelfth has changed you so much. However, in the future, please have any messages from your unit left at the gate or delivered through Kurotsuchi-fuiteicho since it is clear I cannot trust any messages from you."_

_"But, Ukitake-teicho."_

_"That is enough, Suiren."_

_Watching him walk off, she felt something breaking what she had thought was one of the only solid things she had left to rely on. She knew then that she had been a fool. There was nothing more to say, even while Kyoraku-teicho and Nanao tried. In his own way, Ichimaru was right. Her silence had made her as guilty as them. So, over top of Naano's protests and offers of help, in a dull flat voice she began to recite a litany of her guilt and all the charges that had been leveled at her, and to seal everything, included the attack on Nanao in the Academy. The one she had healed the bespectacled vice-captain from. The one that only her and Nanao knew had occurred. It sealed everything and she was oddly vindicated in a resigned fashion as she heard the shocked gasp and sigh come from near her right elbow._

_"Fine, but get dressed first. I refuse to arrest a half dressed woman. Gratefully, she put on the clothes, fastening them all, and tucking the still released sword she had dropped back into the sheath at her belt unconsciously under the captain's careful watch. She nodded when she was done, and she let them lead her away, ignoring the image of Nanao lying dead that still haunted her mind after listening to Ichimaru's words._

Somehow, remembering, she would have thought that Matsumoto's early words about her being a condemned criminal would have hurt less than they did, especially after being tried and pardoned for her actions. Apparently, that wasn't the case. She sighed as the night air of the living world stirred her hair, watching as the three groups moved towards the opening gargantura in front of them. Carefully, she set a series of binding kidous and an experimental inscripting kidou onto a piece of paper carefully tucked into the same pocket where she stored her glasses. The hole closed and she pulled out her glasses, carefully studying the white clad figures with their broken masks, recording everything with the kidou, before pressing the button she'd installed on the side of her reading lenses and ending the transcription. Making sure that it was safely in the case, she grabbed her zanpakuto and moved forward. Her part of the mission was technically done, but that was one thing Gin had given her; the freedom to move where she chose in this mission after completing her part. After all, there was no one here to order otherwise, the same way that everyone outside the Eleventh division had decided to shun her since her pardon thirty years ago. She caught a glimpse of white and moved towards it, ready for a fight.


	17. Chapter 16

Rukia moved carefully moved so that the white ribbon trailing from Sode no Shirayuki wound around her sleeve and out of the way of her next parry, reading herself to release Haruken for a third time tonight, her awareness almost fully on the fight and she had a brief flicker of gratitude for that as she thought how strongly she was bound to feel the amount of energy she would need to spend before this fight was over. Almost immediately though she felt the arrankar that was closest to them reaching backwards for an attack, and she released a bolt of white lightning incapacitating the arm long enough for her to release her sword's attack, while Hitsugaya-teicho released his bankai, finishing off that particularly enemy and moving so that they would be prepared to fight the next of the Hollows that had come through the gate if not the remaining arrankar. With this one dead, there were at least three arrankar down, and the spiritual pressure from the others who had come was that of the Espada or at least someone equivalent to one in power.

At least while she was in this group, the likelihood of her being injured before either the captain or vice-captain was very low, and she was grateful that they had put her in this group. Although, it would have worried her less if Inoue-san had been able to come as well in order to heal the wounded that would be showing up. The fact that there were none yet could only be attributed to the fact that all of the arrankar so far had been only marginally stronger than a menos or the Hollows that had come. As Haineko took out the last of the weaker arrankar, she sighed, feeling oddly hurt by the other vice-captain. Which was ridiculous, since Matsumoto had said what she had to try to protect everyone. But she knew that they had all forgotten that Warigari-sensei was not the only condemned criminal who had been pardoned there. If Ichigo and Renji had been caught, or even Sado-kun and Inoue-san, they would have been judged as harshly as her. As harshly as Rukia actually had been. For a brief second, Rukia wondered if her pardon meant as little to the other shinigami as her teacher's had. If she would still be thought of as guilty had she not been cleared in such a public manner as Aizen's betrayal had created. She did not know, and any doubts she had flared into anger and she raised her zanpakuto in preparation for the next attack.

A cero blast rocketed past her, grazing the back of her shoulder in a scorching burn and she turned towards the sound of a woman chuckling, the rich and purring contralto sending shivers up her spine as she turned to look at this newest attacker.

And froze, shocked at the sight of the woman who stood in front of her.


	18. Chapter 17

A/N: My apologies for a recent lack of updates. My computer was having difficulty with logging in. And now, I will be going on break tomorrow and not have the ability to post for a few days. So expect an enmasse posting of various work with this and my other stories. And, of course again, please review. I enjoy reading the comments and trying to encorporate your ideas in. Please? Cookies? Okay. Back to Suiren. 

"_Lookin' for a fight already tonight, Suiren-chan?"_

_The voice pierced the air and she turned in shock. Somehow, without being aware of it, she had crossed the boundaries between the Fourth and Fifth divisions when she had run across the path, hurrying back to her division and the experiment that Urahara-teicho had sent her to the Fourth to fetch the bloodwork of everyone who was working on the project, which Unohana had sadly informed her had not been able to be processed. Unfortunately, that also meant that there was no evidence to explain why she was here, especially with the captain and vice-captain's requests that she was not to be seen within their division without good reason._

_A fact which had clearly not escaped their third seat's notice. She was certain of that, and just as certain that he had taken in the fact that her sword was not with her while she watched his grin widen as he drew his sword._

_"Must be a bad day. Shoot to k-,"_

_She kicked Shinsou out of her former friend's hand, catching part of the wrist and slamming it back into his chest. Almost reflexively, Gin struck at her hard, aiming for her temple. She dodged swiftly and it hit the ridge of her collarbone hard enough that she thought that she could feel it bruising all the way down to bone. Which caused her knee, with an equal level of instinct to connect to his groin hard enough that she was sure that it had at least hurt._

_That at least had some success, even if it had cost her slightly with the kick to her knees that he managed after that. Still, it was clear that he had taken the worst of the blow and she moved, flipping herself effortlessly into the air the way that Shihoin-teicho had taught her for the lessons that she had been having, working with the young shinigami girl who was teaching her. Deftly, she twisted around and kicked Gin squarely in the back, her heel catching just below the base of his neck._

_He turned, surprised to see that she was so serious about fighting him, she noticed with a touch of pride at how well the hit had worked when he struck backwards, catching the back of her knees hard enough that her reflexes if not the damage that the hit had done, would keep her from rising for a few seconds._

_Those few seconds were time enough for Gin to recover in as she felt his elbows pinning her shoulders backwards as he reached forward. She struggled, trying to pull herself free, but within a few minutes, he had his hands pressed firmly around her throat and was trying to choke her. She pulled one hand free trying to slide it between his, the other arm positioned in a sort of choke hold that she had learned in Rukongai, one which placed not only tightened his breathing using her elbow and forearm, but which used her left hand at the base of his neck to make sure he could not break free._

_"Shit, both of you, back off damn it! I said back off,"_

_The voice grew louder as it came closer and she tried not to flinch as a foot came between both of them to loosen their grips. Or more precisely, Ichimaru to loosen his grip on her neck which had only tightened since she was only trying to keep him from killing her._

_Two sets of hands quickly had them both hauled to their feet, and in spite of it being hard to breathe ,standing mostly at attention. Haruko-teicho was glaring at both of them, all three if you included his vice-captain who was holding both of Gin's arms in a gesture that was obviously meant to keep him from attacking her again. She listened to the riot act that the captain was reading them about the attack, but the words did not sink in as she took all of her energy and put it into standing up on her still unsteady legs and breathing painfully in and out._

_"Warigari-san, teicho asked you what you were doing in the Fifth division?" Aizen asked. She looked at him, her gaze still angry, although she knew that could be explained by her recent fight in spite of the real reason behind it. She opened her mouth and tried to answer, but her voice was too ragged from Gin's attempts to choke her and all that resulted were some hoarse attempts at speech which ended only when she began coughing from the razorlike feel of her own throat._

_"Dammit, looks like I'm going to have to summon-"_

_"Haruko-san, have you seen Warigari-san? She was supposed to be back to my division with the some results from the Fourth."_

_"Speak of the devil," Haruko-sensei murmured as Urahara-teicho came into view from behind the corner of the division building that blocked view of the shortcut from the main path. She knew that this would not be good, that her captain was bound to be upset with her for this. Still, she bowed as well as she could with the other captain's hand still firmly on her shoulder._

_"Hai, Kisuke. Was just going to have Sosuke send a hell butterfly to get your ass down here. She was caught fighting my third seat. Now, it looks like Gin lost his temper and pulled a sword on her, but with her record, do any of us need to ask who actually started it? And she can't answer where she has been. Then again, given that both of these two were wringing each others necks, that's pretty easy to figure out."_

_"I will deal with this later then, Haruko-san. In the meantime, I must speak with Warigari-san."_

_"Which means she will not be punished for her part in the fighting and attacking a higher ranked officer, while Ichimaru is to be put in the brig for losing his temper when defending himself?"The normally relaxed and friendly vice-captain sounded more annoyed than usual, even in his other discussions with her, something, which Suiren knew was a feat that took a lot more effort than people might realize._

_As upset as her captain was though, his words were also the worst possible ones that he could have said._

_"I believe, Aizen-kun, that how I run my division and punish my subordinates is my decision, not yours, to make or question. As for her punishment, I have discussed this already with Tessai, and he has agreed to accept her if she is transferred to that division. Since this fight falls outside that of the current punishment binding her rank, the limiter will be removed and her transfer completed once everything is in place. But since that is not why I was looking for Warigari-san, and since the reason I need to speak with her takes presidence over the punishment you requested, I mean to deal with that first."_

_She looked up at her captain, very confused by his words and the obvious distress behind them, becoming more than concerned but truly alarmed when he knelt down and put his hands on her shoulders._

_"I'm sorry, Suiren-chan. This is not the way I meant to tell you, but I thought you should know before the others entered the research in."_

_Suiren continued to look at Urahara-teicho, her confusion growing as she absently went to speak with him and realized that her throat was still too injured for her to speak._

_Without thinking twice, he automatically gestured a healing kidou towards her, easily healing the throat wounds, all the while staying stooped down with his hands on her shoulders so that she could meet his eyes._

_"Teicho, what has happened? I know that Unohana-teicho not having the results makes things difficult, but I can reassess the -,"_

_Urahara hushed her softly. "It's not that. They have identified the most recent of the disappearing souls. It was determined that no one else was there, so any apprentices are safe, but after eaxamining the clothing sent to Soul Society, it is conclusive that the soul was that of Warigari Yuyake from the -,"_

_"No, no it can't be. I saw her yesterday on my day off, when she gave me the dress. No, it isn't her. No, no." She kept repeating the last part, like a mantra to herself as she went to run off, to see for herself._

_She felt two arms catching her and picking her up._

_"I take it that I can deal with the rest of this privately," he added, directing a pointed glance at Aizen-fuiteicho before looking at the other captain. Haruko-teicho nodded that he understood to Urahara-teicho before the Twelfth Division captain carried her out of the Fifth._

"I asked you what you thought of that, shinigami?" the Hollow in front of her sneered, the bone-like claws of the creature's hands digging into her side while he pinned her with his right arm, the claws irritating the old scars in her throat. The half vulpine muzzle smelled of decaying flesh, even through the fringe of dark green strands which separated the creature's actual mouth from hers.

"You really think this is the first time I've seen an enhanced Hollow?" she snapped in annoyance, making it's teeth snap closer as it laughed.

"No, I guess not. You smell like the tasty one Aizen-sama brought back when I was newly hollowfied. We only got a few drops of her blood since she wasn't strong enough, but she was tastier than anything else I've eaten since then. Maybe you would taste as good."

The Hollow's grip was too loose on her throat, like a caricature of a real hand or paw, and she wrenched herself out of its grip, feeling a rather sickening crack in her side as she did so. As did the Hollow, which howled in pain at its injured hand even as it moved to strike her. She dodged one more time and she watched wating for the next attack before she moved. She almost did not see the off blast of energy coming from the Hollow, and barely blocked it before it tried to attack her again.

A cero. Only arrankar were supposed to have ceros! She swore and the Hollow laughed at her.

"Too bad for you those spikes are poisonous and you'll die anyway."

"Too bad for you I'm immune to poison," she spat back, taking a minute to cast a first level healing kidou, just enough so that she knew that there was no risk of her bleeding to death as she moved to block the next attack with her jutte. Poison was one thing. Bleeding to death was not as likely to allow her to recover so easily, and she had no desire to let the thing hit her again and make that all the more likely.

The edge of her jutte sliced into the Hollow's arm, enough that with many if might have destroyed it. But not one this strong, even without the enhancements that is clearly had as she continued fighting, it still not showing any signs of slowing down.

"What? So arrogant, shinigami, when you can't even release your attack before I kill you?"

"I don't need to call my shikai, Hollow. This is the released form of my sword. Sakimidareru, Taiseihiboshi!*

The hollow dissolved in front of her and she replaced the jutte at her waist until she got to the next target to fight, gingerly avoiding where the claw had snapped off in her side.

"Too bad you didn't live long enough to see that, Hollow." she said in annoyance at where the Hollow had been before going to see what help the others needed.

Whether they would accept it from her or not-

She would see how bad the fighting was when she got there.

* The translation of her release command is "Bloom in fullness, Taiseihiboshi." The sword's name is derived from the idea of the Hindu god Shiva and that mythology. This is also where the name Shiboshi-which yes, I made them up, came from. What they are is a thuggee cult of Shiva or Kali which were brought into Soul Society. This earns them the name "Shiva's dragons", or Shiboshi.


	19. Chapter 18

The fighting was getting truly ugly now was all that Yumichika could think as they continued to battle against the large arrankar that had moved to flank him and Ikkaku on one side, while they were leaving room for Soifon to get Sado back to Inoue's, his arm bent at an odd angle which made him all but useless during the current fight, and even Soifon was too aware of the importance that the former ryouka had to Soul Society to leave him to keep trying to fight, leaving Nodaika with the two fighters to finish his part of the assignment. It was certainly more generous than she would have been with any member of her division who was caught in those straits, but given the unusual abilities that most of the ryouka possessed, it had been considered most urgent to keep them as safe as possible throughout this until they were needed in the upcoming war. But her departure had also deprived them of another fighter, one who could kill an enemy in seconds.

And with the Espada on one side of them, and ceros coming from another direction well out of any of their lines of sight let alone attack, that would have been a useful thing indeed. The fight had taken on a seriousness that most of their fights did not. Not filled with the joy of simply fighting, although that was still there underneath, but the feeling of not being strong enough as they fought the opponents on either side of them.

Making the fight truly ugly. Enough so that Yumichika did something that he very rarely ever did. He released his shikai. After all, it was not like Ikkaku would say anything to anyone, as much as he might laugh at him for it later.

Especially since he had just released his own sword and his secretly guarded bankai.

But the ugly arrankar, who Yumichika might have remembered being named Yammy, if he ever remembered the name of ugly things, would pay for making him need to do this.

Once they got through this fight.

"Really, having problems, Yammy? You should have asked for my help. I would have been more than glad to give things a boost here."

"Nereida, get the hell out of the way! It's my fight."

"Suit yourself, Yammy. I was only trying to help."

The other arrankar sashayed passed, teasing each of the shinigami in turn,dodging their attacks as well as the arrankar's before she used sonido to head back towards wherever she had come from with a clear feminine giggle and a sway of hips as she went back to her own fight.

Which left them to finish this fight before they rushed off to help whoever was unfortunate enough to have to face the clearly stronger female arrankar.

This night might turn out to be uglier than he thought, Yumichika decided with a disgusted air as he attacked the arrankar, draining a bit more of it's spiritual energy.

At least there would be beautiful fighting to watch first.


	20. Chapter 19

_She wiped soot and ashes from her face as she knocked even louder on the door. There was no answer again, in spite of her yelling, and she finally took a breath and opened the door, pushing her way into the room._

_Only to find a zanpakuto being held at her throat by a man who was clad only in his hakama, stretched halfway across the bed._

_"Oh, it's you."_

_She blinked in shock at hearing the familiar voice coming from the strange blue haired man who was laying in front of her._

_"What is it, Warigari?" This time his voice was beginning to hold the first warning notes of his building temper._

_"Gomen nasai, teicho. I'm sorry for waking you, but the division is on fire."_

_"What?"_

_"The labs. It was a linked reaction from the biofeeding machinery in the first sector of the main labs and the fire is now in all of them and moving to the offices."_

_He was up now and tying the top of his shihakusho back into place before he looked at her._

_"Have people begun to remove the files."_

_"They have tried, sir, but the smoke in those areas is too thick, and given the causticness of the fumes from the chemicals stored in the Fourth research unit's labs, it has been almost impossible."_

_"Come here then."_

_"Sir?" She made it a question as she headed back from where she had been backing up by the door, ready to return to fighting the fire. _

_"This is so unscientific," he complained and for a moment she wondered why before he jerked hard at her shoulder, pulling her practically on top of him as he bit down on her shoulder right below the deltoid crest._

_He drew back, wiping his mouth as he did so and handing her a bandage._

_She blinked at him, touching her hand to the bite, which was red with blood. "You bit me?"_

_"Of course. As you keep pointing out the division is on fire and we need someone else besides Nemu and myself who can get the necessary files out. That was the fastest way to transfer the immunity to poison and toxins so you can without the proper equipment, since I'm not in the habit of biting women who taste like sulfur and carbon when they break into my room normally. Unless you would have preferred the alternative?"_

_She looked at him in confusion, shocked to hear his voice softening slightly as he spoke. It was almost unheard of for him to let go of some perceived threat so quickly, especially with the history that he had with holding grudges._

_He suddenly shrugged and sighed. "Apparently not. That's rather unfortunate, although I wonder if the immunity would be different through that transfer. Never mind, then. Now go try to contain the damned thing. Idiot!"_

_She ran down the stairs, oddly grateful that his voice had resumed its usual harshness once the subject had changed again. She was searching the labs a few minutes later when she found him again, once again masked with his haori and clothing firmly in place although just as covered in soot as he moved to take the files she had gotten for him._

_That was when she had seen them trapped, seven of her people at the center of the blast, all because the captain had wanted to see just how strong of an effect kidou had on the biofeeding mechanisms. They were caught behind a collapsed beam in the corner and she moved towards them._

_"Warigari, give me the files."_

_"Get my people out first, or I'll see that they burn with me."_

_He waited, obviously thinking that she was bluffing, when she began to walk backwards into the flames. His eyes widened then, and he grabbed her arm to keep her from moving back, jerking her forward harshly, so that she was forced off balance. Glaring at her, he took the files before slapping her hard across the face, the sharp edges of his nails leaving red lines on the skin._

_"That mark on your shoulder marks you as one of my experiments, Warigari. And I do not tolerate any of my experiments turning against my hand ever. This is the only warning you will have of that from me. Is that understood?"_

_She was too angry to answer, so she jerked her head downwards once harshly, in what might possibly be construed as a nod before looking upward to meet the odd gold gaze once more, still unflinching. Takimoko, get her out of my sight._

_She felt two larger arms closing around her and the large man who had been transferred to her unit three short years earlier carrying her in a flash step to near the edge of their division which bordered on the Thirteenth's side._

_He offered her a sip of water from the flask and she barely took a sip before the ash and soot caking her throat and mouth loosened and she spit up the vile stuff before crying in front of anyone else for nearly the first time in the eighteen years since Kaien had been killed, still cradled by the subordinate who had gotten her out safe. Crying for the seven people she had not been able to save._

_She had learned tonight just how much danger her bravado had put all of them in._

_But Mayuri had learned a very important lesson as well. That she was sure of, having seen the realization in his eyes as she had walked backwards into the flames._

_The fact that Suiren did not bluff._

And while unpleasant, Suiren supposed that that encounter had in its own way saved her life several times over the years. And not just the immunity, but the placement of a threat that most people would only use as a bluff.

Judging from appearances, the arrankar that she could see on the other side of Rukia's shoulder certainly looked human enough in a very visibly feminine fashion.

"She's stronger than the others," Rukia whispered hoarsely as she watched the arrankar that was beginning to fight Matsumoto, struggling not to blush as she realized just how much of the arrankar was visible as she fought.

"Yes, she is. She needs to get rid of the limit if she is to fight that successfully."

Rukia turned and looked at Suiren. "W-warigari-sensei, how do you know about the limiters?"

Suiren smiled sadly. It was hardly as though the limiters that captains and vice-captains had in the living world weren't common knowledge. Especially from someone who also had one, but that was something that very few people alive in Soul Society would remember. In any case, she understood the unspoken concern in Rukia's voice and decided to answer anyway.

"Because they are derived from binding kidou, it is my unit's responsibility to install and release them."

"Oh, but then, if you are here, who will?"

"I left instructions with Kurotsuchi-fuiteicho," she answered absently, watching as the fight with Matsumoto worsened. This particular arrankar was stronger than any of them had expected from anything less than what the others referred to as an Espada. And Hitsugaya had become unable to help, tangled as he was in a web of something not unlike kidou, while dodging the ceros that were coming from someone still out of sight, some arrankar that was able to hide its reiatsu almost fully, as if it was limiting itself so that it would not be caught.

"Rukia, can you help with this?"

Rukia squared back her shoulders and readied her hand to reach for her zanpakuto as she nodded. "Ai, sensei."

The words were oddly touching, and she felt a slight pang at how much her former student clearly trusted her after all of these years. That would not stop her from giving the order she needed to right then,though.

She carefully shoved a small piece of paper that had a copy of the transcribed message on it into Rukia's hands.

"That needs to get to Soifon-teicho. Now, go and get that to her."

"But, Warigari-sensei?"

"Kuchiki Rukia, as the twelfth seat of the Twelfth division, I am ordering you to fall back now."

Rukia did as she was ordered. Suiren had seen that as she had watched the girl staying only long enough to see her move forward before running to deliver the message.

There was not any more time to think more about that though. She only had a matter of seconds to work in if Nemu was not able to release the limits in time.

Almost as if on cue, the arrankar moved downwards, causing the injured Matsumoto to fall in a heap behind her.

For a brief moment, Suiren hoped that with the healing she had done earlier that she still had strength to make her gesture more than a bluff before the arrankar attacked.


	21. Chapter 20

Matsumoto could feel the gash across her chest bleeding, but it no longer hurt. That in itself was a bad sign. A cut which ran diagonally across your whole chest was supposed to hurt. But the clean deep lines of the wound that was still trickling blood steadily were growing number and number as she tried to stand from where she had landed after being thrown by the arrankar. Somewhere in the background she heard her captain calling from where he was trapped in the odd net that the one arrankar had woven out of his bala and ceros as though they were just another kidou for him to use and she knew that he would fight his way out to help her, if only because she was his vice-captain. But then she saw the sandaled feet in front of her and knew that it wasn't her captain who had come to rescue her.

It was Suiren.

Matsumoto stared in shock at the girl, not even hearing as she looked up and yelled for her two subordinates to get out of the way.

The only thought that was passing through Matsumoto's head was that the other shinigami was truly as insane as they had feared. Because there was no way that a twelfth seat, whether she was sealed or not, could ever survive an attack from an Espada level arrankar.

That was when she saw Suiren staring at her, the friendly serious stare of the shy little girl in the Academy coming from the young woman's eyes.

"You're hurt, Ran."

Matsumoto pulled herself up, a certain prick of pride from Suiren's pity half pulling her up in spite of the pain from the wound across her chest as she pulled herself back up as the wind picked up from a storm that seemed to be coming out of nowhere, lightning flashing through the sky as she watched Suiren, trying to form the words to order Suiren to fall back.

They died on her lips as she listened to the sound of half-echoed call caught in the wind and the sight of Suiren standing there in the middle of the storm, a beautiful blue and silver sari winding loosely up from her legs, half veiling her face which was still turned towards Matsumoto even as she fought the arrankar in front of her.

Then Matsumoto collapsed in pain, a burning searing pain that coursed through the wound as if it was being burnt, the mocking echo of Suiren's words pounding in her head.

_Ban Kai._


	22. Chapter 21

A/N: Hello. Sorry for the delay in posting and review responses. My computer has been being a bit haywire. So, now all of the plot twists are going to start unraveling themselves. The offer for a story of the character or pairing of your choice is still good for reviews and guesses on Suiren's ties to the Kuchiki house. As for her father, out of the three potential choices, well, if you didn't et it before, this chappie spells it out pretty clearly. Couple more chapters to go and a few twists left, but I hope you are still enjoying the story. Oh, and at the request of one of my friends who reads this- an explanation of the title. The title comes from the Bleach chapter "Flower on the Precipice" - which the quote may be making a cameo in the story yet, and the song "Flowers on the Wall", which is about someone who is living in an insane asylum. Okay, well, back to the story.

_It was dark in her cell and she twisted on her side to keep the bindings which prevented her from doing kidou from chaffing her wrists and waking her up the way that she had for the first few nights before the nice man had come and taken the chains off of them._

_The nice man, that was how she thought of him even though he was the one who had had to escort her to this place after she was sentenced. He hadn't looked like he was happy about it though when he had uncovered his face, shaking a mop of blonde hair out of the black cloth once he had set her down here. But sometimes when he would come to talk to her, then he would actually smile and the sight made her happy because the nice man was the only one in this place who she wasn't a little afraid of._

_That was why he had put her in the cell. To keep her safe after one of the other prisoner's attacked her._

_There was a rattle of keys in the lock and she woke up startled as the guard opened the door to her cell._

_"There, you can see for yourself she is fine. You will be given fifteen minutes with her. At the end, they will come and remove you._

_Suiren felt the blood rushing out of her face and she stood quickly as the vice-captain came into the room._

_"I-I'm sorry, Aizen-fuiteicho. I was not expecting anyone this late at night."_

_Her already childishly high voice squeaked even more distinctly as she gripped her hands at her side and tried to step backwards even though she was practically trapped against the ledge which served as a bench and bed built into the wall. _

_"No, I don't imagine that you were, Warigari-chan. My captain asked me to confirm what your current status is. Fortunately, he was not suspicious enough to know that I already know you aren't insane."_

_"You do? But you agreed when they said I should be put here? Then why did you d-?"_

_"Why did I think you should be put here? Because you are of no use to me. I had thought you might be an acceptable pawn, but even Yuyake as stubborn as she was during that fight would have done better. You have no hope of growing strong enough to ever be worth anything as a shinigami, so this was the most suitable place for you."_

_Listening to him speak, the words did not sound as ugly as they were. He sounded stern, but not unkind, the way she had heard him sound when he came to visit the Academy and address a group of unruly students for not listening only a few weeks before when she had passed his calligraphy class on the way back to her division. But as her mind registered the words behind the gentle sounding tone, she felt her stomach lurch and her mind began to scramble, trying to think of anything else that the words that he was saying could possibly mean._

_"You mean you were one of the shinigami that investigated what happened to my mother? That is why you are saying this aren't you, in case someone hears this when you were one of the investigators? You truly meant it when you said that you did not think I was insane because you saw what happened? You knew that it wasn't Muguruma-teicho that I was attacking but Ich-." She stopped, __realizing that admitting that she had been trying to attack the third seat of his division because she thought he might attack her would not improve her cause with the vice-captain in front of her._

_He laughed, a genuine heartfelt laugh and she felt the pit that was opening in her stomach widen at the sound._

_"Wise of you to refrain from telling me that you were meaning to attack Ichimaru Gin, daughter. Blood isn't everything, in spite of what the noble houses may like to believe. And while the guesses you made are laudable in their logic, I believe that the reason I wanted you to be placed here, knowing that you were sane was the reason I actually gave you. Killing you would only give them more reason to investigate."_

_"But you weren't there. You couldn't have. They always said that when they came to ask Mother questions, that you were half an hour late. And you wouldn't have been nice to me if you were the sort of person who-,"_

_"Oh, I investigated, but there are things that your mother never reported. Like that scar."_

_Suiren's eyes widened. She knew the scar that he was talking about, a small delicate half moon on the curve of her shoulder that had a pool of faded blue dye that traced around the edges. It was one of the few things that her mother could both remember and speak about from the attack unlike the smaller ridges that traced the inside of her arms. Suiren had remembered seeing those scars every day until when her mother was brushing her hair once they had both changed into sleeping robes. And while distinct, it was such as small scar compared with those from the defensive wounds on her mother's arms that she had never thought anyone else would have noticed it to report. The hole she felt inside of her was beginning to feel more and more solid, to the point she was beginning to feel sick as she realized that what he was saying was the truth, even as she tried to force her mind to grasp wildly at any other options like straws rather than the harsh words he was presenting her with the soft, almost teasing voice. She had never really even spoken to this man, let alone done anything to make him hate her enough to do this. There had to be another possible explanation for why he would tell her that he-,_

_"Yuyake's face when the ink pot that she meant to throw at me broke in her hand and I pushed it into her shoulder was such priceless shock. She had truly thought that I was there to help with the Shiboshi who had attacked her. Although, if I would have realized that there would have been proof of my time off, I would have taken care of things then before there was any chance of losing."_

_Whatever thoughts had been scrambling through her head as soon as she heard those words fled and she rushed at him, hitting at his shoulder as hard as she could, hoping to break something while part of her mind just kept cursing and repeating what he had just told her._

_Every kick she tried to land, every punch she threw failed to land and she quickly found herself standing with him holding her arms to her sides, in spite of her efforts to squirm free._

_The harder she struggled, the more it seemed to amuse him, she could tell from the soft vibrating feel as he laughed, all the while keeping her from moving her arms even as she began to yell and then scream in earnest. Within seconds most of the sound from the cell was drowned out by frenzied calls and half coherent mutterings from all over the ward and spreading quickly from the sounds of the guards running to try to keep the peace within the walls of the building._

_"And that sort of display shows just how Ichimaru can be more mine than my illegitimate daughter. After all, blood isn't everything."_

_Listening to his voice, she didn't think that she could hate him more than listening to him talk to her like this,the calm soothing tone of his voice juxtaposed against every word he said. It was only then that she realized that she had heard him, a task which would have been impossible without being heard only moments before and suddenly the sound of footsteps could be heard as well as voices and a jangling sound that she had come to know well in the past week._

_Keys._

_"And since when have you ever been under orders to lock a visitor in with the patients?"_

_"Ai, Urahara-san, but I am not cleared to deal with this matter so he ordered me to leave him __with the girl."_

_The footsteps drew closer and then other voices could be heard, heading here at what sounded like breakneck speed._

_The door opened and Aizen left, finding himself facing two of the Special Mobile Corps as they trapped him before one threw her mask back._

_"Damnit, Sousuke, sneaking around here at night is a really good way to get yourself killed."_

_"My apologies, Shihoin-teicho, to you and your subordinates, but Hirako-teicho had wanted to know what state she was in. I should have thought to come in the morning. My apologies for disrupting your division. I had not known that she would become hysterical just with my talking to her."_

_The man who the guard had called Urahara, but who still was firmly planted in Suiren's mind as the nice man leveled a look at him and then at Suiren before nodding brusquely and ordering the guard to escort the vice-captain out of the Second division so he could report as the other two officers left as well leaving him facing Suiren through the open cell door._

_"I heard what he said to you. I'm sorry, Warigari-chan."_

_Even as she turned toward the comforting hand on the back of her shoulder, she just kept sobbing while the third seat simply held her until she fell asleep, knowing that nothing would change._

_Because nothing could take back those words._

_Or fix what had gone wrong with her life._

Suiren stared at the arrankar, blinking back tears from the sparks of steel that had hit her when her blade had connected with the blade of the arrankar's half scythe.

"Neither fish, nor fowl, nor good red herring are you? Whatever side you are though, you are backup. That won't save you, or did you really think that anyone there was someone stupid enough to send backup for the backup, no matter what side you were on ?"

The arrankar moved back, as quickly as if she had flash stepped away from the shinigami and stood on the air along the edge of the building, drawing Suiren's eyes to her standing with her arms akimbo in the ridiculous combination of straps and laces that formed the odd body suit that barely covered anything the filmy white fringe of a skirt and the arrankar woman's hair fanning out behind her, the longer blackish red hair shining like blood against the cold concrete. The other woman smiled as she caught sight of the released bankai behind Suiren.

"Although from what's behind you, I'd say that your decision is pretty clear."

She did not look back at the bankai. It was more than the fact that she knew how the beautiful flower with the man who stood statuelike on the inside appeared in her inner world, surrounded by a stormy night on a still lake of stepping stones. She had no wish to see Ran struggling against the pain of being trapped inside of that flower, the way she had been all the while she had argued her way through shikai and bankai.

"All that I made clear is that I am not on your side, arrankar."

The other woman bowed half mockingly. "Soy Nereida Deilujiria, brat," and she attacked again, this time with a blast of violet cero that burst from her hand.

Suiren ducked, letting the cero splinter off of the building behind her and cast an anti-arrankar kidou at Nereida.

The arrankar staggered, swearing briefly at her.

"Shut up and die," Suiren yelled at the arrankar, releasing her sword from its bankai state and keeping it as a jutte since she did not have the strength to keep it up any longer as she leveled another blast.

This time it hit the arrankar's chest and she rocked forward, bleeding. Suiren noticed two familiar forms out of the corner of her eye, clearly coming to assist and she yelled upwards towards the half intact side of the building behind them.

"I already told you to fall back!" she yelled, her voice deepening from the hoarseness that had developed more and more with every order she had given, enough for her to sound like him.

The figures retreated, quickly enough that they almost seemed to blur into white at the edge of her vision. The arrankar sat, kneeling on the air and watching her between throwing up mouthfuls of blood from the hits.

"You little bitch! You are Aizen-sama's daughter! You have to be. You more than the rest of us should be worshiping him."

"I thought I told you to shut up and die!"

The jutte hit the arrankar and she fell motionless and dead as the jutte sliced a cut into her neck.

"Blood isn't everything," she murmured at the corpse before leaving to take care of her own wounds and report.

After all, there were no backups for the backup.


	23. Chapter 22

"Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyourinmaru!"

The cero net finally frozen, Hitsugaya swung the chain attached to the sword through the frozen web, shattering the energy in an odd burst, looking for the enemy that had trapped him inside as he swooped down to where Matsumoto stood, still half-crouched in the shadow of where the end of the fight against the female arrankar had been. She looked at him and gingerly let him help her up, her breath still coming in harsh gasps as if she could not breathe after whatever it was that had happened during his fight with the Fourth Espada and his damned cero net. Not that he hadn't been able to see or hear from inside of the net. He certainly had heard Matsumoto's cry for help and the odd scene between the twelfth seat who had come as backup and the arrankar. The echoes of reiatsu from the girl's bankai still felt heavy in the air literally, the wind still whipping through the sky as lavender storm clouds began to fade slowly from view in the wake of where the remaining arrankar's negation had been.

A negation that, if the arrankar's report was true, had probably been called by the father of the same twelfth seat.

"Matsumoto?" he asked his vice-captain, genuinely worried now. He had seen the wound she had gotten from the Espada and knew that it would not be long before she collapsed in front of him unless she got it treated.

"I'll be fine, teicho. I'll be there to report in a minute. Once I head to Urahara's shop. There is something I need to take care of."

If the serious tone and the angry look which darkened her blue eyes until they looked like light slate in the dim light would not have been enough to follow her, the words that she said as she flashstepped away were.

"I am going to kill that little bitch."

A/N: I know it's a bit short, but the next few chapters are going to be really long, so I wanted something short before I started those. If you like it, review. If you hate it, review too. If you just clicked on this by accident, review anyway.


	24. Chapter 23

_Her hands were flying through the last of the paperwork before the required break that she was being required to take while the rest of the division, even Mayuri would be gone. Most of the division for break, Mayuri to retrieve more experiment samples for him to work on when trivial duties such as the running of his division would not inconvenience him. She hadn't left Soul Society or even Seretei for three years now, ever since Urahara-teicho had been exiled. But having been practically ordered to leave the Twelfth for the first time since then, her mind was scrambling to try to think of where she could go. _

_She had refused to impose on Nanao and her already rare visits to her other friends and family, and her former training partner, Shaolin Fong, who now was known as Soi Fon, was off limits being as she was in the second division. There was no way for her to speak to her without breaking the ban she'd been placed under. As were most of the others who had been kind to her in the Academy, like the boy who had watched her light kidou. She knew that she always could have asked either Kyoraku-teicho or Ukitake-teicho, but the thought of imposing on them was intimidating. In addition, she also would have no idea how to interact with them when they were not being captains but actual members of the noble houses._

_Quietly, she shut off the lights and began to make her way through the halls, avoiding traps which had begun to spring up in the past few years._

_Traps that were a vivid reminder of who now ran the Twelfth division._

_She was distracted enough that she almost didn't notice when she crossed the division wall and walked straight into someone, hard enough to knock the few books she had been allowed to take with her over break out of her hands._

_At least with her head bent, whoever it was could not see that she had been so distracted by trying to see through eyes filled with tears. It was too unprofessional, especially with how young she seemed. She did not want whoever it was to think she had been feeling sorry for herself._

_Two hands helped her gather her books and get to her feet before one of them tilted the chin up to see the dirty face beginning to be streaked with tears._

_And found herself staring up at Shiba Kaein. _

_"No tears, Warigari-chan, and no excuses. I talked it over with Miyako last night after you said about meeting us at practice. You are going on break this year. And since you aren't in the Thirteenth, I can't get in trouble for it anymore. Now hurry up and get everything that you'll need together."_

She listened as she heard Yourichi talking to Kukaku through one of the video monitors that Urahara-san had come up with and in spite of the pain in her side, Suiren felt an urge of comfort at the sound of the familiar voice which had once been a regular part of her time away from the Gotei 13, visiting the younger two members of the Shiba family with their elder brother's blessing. She was half tempted to call out a greeting but stopped herself. This part of the mission was more important.

Still, being surrounded by the familiar faces of Yourichi, Urahara, Tessai, and other people who she had not seen in decades, hearing those voices again was comforting.

Especially Urahara-san. Even if he had looked disappointed in her when he had heard about the sentence.

Disappointed, but not doubting, not wavering. That in itself meant the world to her.

As if the confidence in the thought had propelled her, she removed things from her pocket and took off the top of the shihakusho that was shredded across the back from her fighting, leaving her in her bindings.

Reaching beneath the last binding, she pulled out the claw blade, watching the edges. She may be immune to poison, but they were still sharp and still dangerous.

Kidou, she needed healing kidou to keep herself from bleeding to death. She knew that, the same way she knew the advantages that her death would give to her unit and the easiness of escaping the trap she had been caught in.

She also knew it was the easy way out. Suiren had never believed in taking the easy way out. Her captain had taught her better than that.

Suiren shut her eyes and began calling the fukudou to her hand, using the energy to practically stitch her side back together so she wouldn't lose anymore blood. The normally soothing kidou made her feel as if her flesh were being boiled off, ripping her raw. She stopped, panting and sweated from the effort. The cut was not completely closed, but it was enough for now.

She opened her eyes and noticed a glimpse at the corner of her eye, she saw a glimpse of orange and she waved at Yourichi, trying to reassure her with a nod. She nodded back and went, not to where the conversation had been, but through another door.

She steadied herself on the counter and tried to breathe more steadily, looking up to see Matsumoto staring at her.

"What did you do to me?"

The other woman went to pound her hand on the counter and Suiren stopped her.

"Don't touch. It's poisonous."

"You called bankai and me and you are worried about that?"

Perhaps it was the annoyance, the frustration, or simply the realization that some of the people she cared about most were going to see her like this that finally broke the last straw in Suiren's temper.

"You know Rangiku, I would explain, but right now, I don't care." She swallowed a gigaikon, assuming her body and the dress her mother had made her a century before with ease. "You won't believe me now, you never have before, so why should you start. Now, I'm sure you have better things to do. Like reporting."

She grabbed one of the three kidou mirrors she had been carrying with her, the box of gigaikon, and the broken pieces of her communicator before dodging out the window.

Ran might not believe her. But there were other people who did. Other people who she needed to report to.


End file.
